


Call Me But Love

by ChasingtheCosmos



Series: By Any Other Name [2]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Season 9 AU, Slow Burn, Sort Of, Telepathic Bond, Telepathy, The Doctor/Clara Oswald - Freeform, Touch Telepathy, Twelfth Doctor/Clara Oswald - Freeform, mention of Eleven/Rose, mention of Eleventh Doctor/River, mention of Nine/Rose, mention of Ten/Rose, mention of Tentoo/Rose, season 8 AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2020-02-26
Packaged: 2021-02-24 19:08:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 51,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22002970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChasingtheCosmos/pseuds/ChasingtheCosmos
Summary: "'Oh, dear.  Looks like we might have picked up an extra passenger,' the Doctor grumbled lowly to himself.  His gaze raised to Rose's once more and she was struck by the sheer intensity of it.  Somehow, he managed to look at once so familiar, and yet sodifferentfrom what she was used to.  'Best find something to hold on to,' he warned her ominously."A Season 8 AU centering around Rose Tyler and her newly-regenerated Doctor as they both struggle to maintain their relationship in the face of some unknown force that seems to be drawing them together.  Will they be able to solve the mystery of who is pulling the strings before it's too late?This is a direct sequel to "By Any Other Name" and might be a bit confusing if you haven't read that first.There are plans for this fic to continue into Season 9 with another 20 chapters, but it is currently on hold while the author finishes up other projects.
Relationships: The Doctor (Doctor Who)/Rose Tyler, Twelfth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Series: By Any Other Name [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1545097
Comments: 63
Kudos: 213





	1. Chapter One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ ](https://ibb.co/6Hmscwk)  
> 

"Are you _sure_ you know how to fly this thing?"

The gray-haired Scotsman was glaring across the console at Rose, but there was a spark of fear in his eye as the TARDIS careened haltingly from one direction to the other and back again. The wild rocking motion sent Rose and the Doctor staggering to keep their balance. 

"I think you just punched a hole straight through the middle of the Cretaceous period ..." the new man muttered helpfully.

"Did _you_ want to have another go, then?" Rose snapped angrily. She jumped half-way over the console to smack down the engine stabilizers before the TARDIS could jettison them backwards in time another two-thousand years. The ship's song seemed to be vibrating with barely-contained energy as she spun wildly through the vortex, hurtling them further into the unknown.

 _Come on, dear, just stay with me,_ Rose begged as she silently reached out for the TARDIS's aid and fought to make sense of the sentient ship's frenzied, unorganized melody. _We just need to land safely. You can help me do that, can't you?_

" _Land_? Are you trying to land?" the man across the console from her asked. He flashed her a sharp, indignant look as he added, "Well, why didn't you just say so? I can land us - I've landed loads of times. At least, I think I have. Unless I'm confusing landing with crashing again ..."

"Doctor!" Rose shouted in an attempt to focus him as he turned his scowl to the controls once more and began to ramble aimlessly.

"Right! Yes!" he replied, blinking hard and searching the panel of controls before him. "Landing, let's see ... You need the handbrake to land!"

Before Rose could stop him, he reached forward and yanked down hard on the lever nearest to him. They were both immediately hurtled towards the floor, letting out startled shouts as the ship shuddered to a screeching halt around them.

"See? Easy-peasy," the strange man groaned. He wearily raised himself up to his hands and knees, his breath coming in sharp, heaving gasps that belied his carefree tone. "Your parking skills could use a bit of work, though. I thought I showed you how to do this?"

"Doctor, I need you to _focus_ , okay?" Rose's tone was breathless as she, too, drug herself wearily back to her feet once more. "We need to get back to modern day London so that we can sort you out."

"Nah, don't go there, it's boring. Why would you want to go somewhere _boring_?" he demanded. He turned to glare at her once more as though she had personally offended him with her unwelcome suggestion. "I mean, seriously, why should I even bother to bring you along if you're just going to suggest _boring_ places to visit?"

"Doctor, _please_ , we just need to ..."

Rose's desperate words were cut off on a small, shocked gasp as the Doctor suddenly circled the console in two long strides and stared down hard at her with those intense new blue eyes of his, leaving nothing but a breath of space between the two of them.

Before Rose could say a single word, he was suddenly invading her mind, using the telepathic bond that she had formed with his previous incarnation to delve deeply into her most recent thoughts and memories. He was rougher than he had ever been with her before. It felt as though he was tearing her apart from the inside out as he desperately searched for something within her. Rose forced herself to remain still and allow him to rudely push his way through her thoughts. She knew that it would hurt far worse if she attempted to resist him.

 _Rose, Rose, my Rose ..._ his mind whispered sadly. It seemed that he had finally found whatever it was he had been looking for and ceased his frantic mental digging. 

Rose watched as the man before her closed his eyes and screwed up his eyebrows once more in a pained expression. _It hurts ..._ he moaned silently.

Rose didn't know if he was attempting to hide his pain from her or not, but it came through the bond regardless. It filled her thoughts with fire and agony as she felt her bondmate's entire being slowly falling to pieces and reforming.

Rose soothed his thoughts as gently as she could, but she felt horribly, terrifyingly out of her depth. When she tentatively reached out and let her fingers brush against the familiar waistcoat that this strange new man was still wearing, his eyes immediately snapped open and he suddenly jolted back to life once more. He didn't even give her a warning before ejecting her forcefully from his mind as his attention immediately bounced back to his ship.

"Why did you bring us to the Cretaceous period, anyway?" he demanded loudly as he spun away from her and frowned down at the TARDIS controls once more. "What's here that's so important that you just _had_ to land for a little pit stop?"

Rose opened her mouth to remind him of their near brush with a crash-landing, but she never got the chance. The ship suddenly gave another great lurch that threw them both into the ground again. 

"What is _that_?" Rose demanded sharply as she gripped the edge of the TARDIS console and felt the ship shudder and groan all around them.

"Er ... best take a look outside ..." The Doctor paused for a moment as he seemed to consider something and then hesitantly met Rose's gaze. "You first," he suggested slowly.

"Doctor, what's out there?" Rose demanded as the ship tossed unevenly beneath their feet once more.

"Well, someone just _had_ to come and visit the dinosaurs," he grumbled petulantly. His shaggy brows raised in her direction with a long-suffering look that Rose really didn't appreciate - especially considering the fact that, for all intents and purposes, they had just met.

"Doctor, what are you ...?" 

The rest of Rose's question was cut off yet again as another mighty quake rumbled around them. This, at last, seemed to startle the Doctor back into action. Rose clung tight to one of the ship's railings as he spun around the console before her and began preparing them for another departure.

"Right! Best to beat a hasty retreat then, what do you say?" he rambled loudly as he worked. "I think there was a request somewhere for a nice boring spot to practice your parking skills, wasn't that right?"

Rose's angry retort was silenced as the console room suddenly exploded in a shower of sparks that sent them both shouting and moving to protect their eyes from the bright, fiery blaze.

"Oh, dear. Looks like we might have picked up an extra passenger," the Doctor grumbled lowly to himself. His gaze raised to Rose's once more and she was struck by the sheer intensity of it. Somehow, he managed to look at once so familiar, and yet so _different_ from what she was used to. "Best find something to hold on to," he warned her ominously. "I think we'll be in for a ..."

But now it was the Doctor's turn to have his words silenced as the TARDIS groaned around them once more. A loud, sharp cracking sound preceded a great billow of dark black smoke that quickly filled the air around them, clouding their sight and making it difficult to breathe.

"Right! We were crashing!" he shouted jubilantly over the din. The Doctor was moving swiftly around the console controls once more with a bit more of his usual confidence. "Why do I ever let you distract me like this? Well, then - back to it!"

\--------------------

When they finally landed again, Rose and the Doctor both ended up lying flat on the ground in varying stages of disarray while the TARDIS smoked and groaned around them. They didn't have long at all to recover before a loud knocking sound came from the ship's doors and a familiar voice called out to them.

"Hello? Exit the box and surrender to the glory of the Sontaran Empire!"

Rose barely had the chance to blink before the Doctor was jumping back to his feet again as though they hadn't just fallen through the vortex and barely made it out of the other side in one piece. He rushed towards the doors but only muttered a few, quick words with the alien man who was standing outside before letting the doors slam shut rudely in his face once more.

"I thought I told you _modern-day London_ ," Rose groaned wearily from where she still sat on the TARDIS floor. She glared up at him through pained, narrowed eyes as she rubbed a hand against her aching head. "Please don't tell me you've brought us to _Sontar_." The absolute _last_ thing that she needed right now was to deal with a bunch of cross, war-like aliens while the Doctor and his ship were both so out of sorts.

The Doctor screwed up his eyebrows as he glared at nothing, seeming to digest her words for a moment. Something appeared to dawn on his expression as he turned on his heel to slowly crack the TARDIS doors open once more. "Sleepy ...?" he muttered curiously. "Bashful? Sneezy? Dopey?" He paused for another moment before he exclaimed knowingly, "Grumpy!"

He stumbled forward out of the TARDIS without another word, disappearing into the unknown that waited for them. Rose sighed in resignation as she slowly forced herself to her feet in order to follow after him.

"Oh, you two. The green one ... and the not-green one," the Doctor was ranting distractedly as he rushed on ahead of her.

Rose could see now that they hadn't, in fact, landed on Sontar, but the Doctor had still only managed to get their destination partially correct. They were on Earth, she was relatively certain, but judging by the familiar faces of Jenny, Vastra, and Strax and the period, Victorian clothes that they were all wearing, they had _not_ managed to make it to the present day.

"Or it could be the other way around!" the Doctor continued lightly. "I mustn't prejudge. Oh!" He skidded to a halt as he turned and suddenly caught sight of Rose standing behind him in the doorway of his ship. "You remember, er ..."

His words trailed off awkwardly and Rose could feel his thoughts beginning to race as he stared hard at her in confusion. _Rose, Rose, not Rose, what's the other one ...? Mustn't say that name aloud - special, private, secret, only for me. The gift that no one else must know about. But what's the other name ...?_

"Thingy ..." the Doctor muttered as he continued to struggle to name her. "The, er ... the not-me one - the asking-questions one. Names ... not really my area."

 _Oh, you daft old ..._ " _Clara_ ," Rose reminded him exasperatedly. She was grateful that if they had to go through this strange naming process, at least it was in front of the only other three people in this universe who knew her true name already.

"Well, it might be 'Clara', it might not be - it's a lottery," the Doctor replied distractedly. He turned his back on them all without another word and began to scope out the area that they had landed in. 

They all froze and gazed up in wide-eyed shock as the giant form of a Tyrannosaurus Rex suddenly cast its enormous shadow over them. _That_ was certainly an unexpected twist that Rose hadn't expected to find in nineteenth-century London.

"I think something's gone wrong ..." Rose muttered under her breath. She slowly moved closer to Madame Vastra's side, never once taking her eyes off of the giant reptile before them. Had they really managed to time travel a dinosaur from the dawn of time straight into the middle of Victorian England? She remembered the Doctor saying something about picking up an "extra passenger", but surely _this_ was outside of the realm of possibilities ...

"Wrong?" the Doctor repeated, whipping his head around to focus his wide, manic gaze back on Rose again. "What's gone wrong? Have you regenerated?"

He was stalking quickly towards her once more, his eyes narrowed as he examined her closely. _Wrong, wrong, wrong,_ his thoughts insisted desperately. _Rose? Where's my Rose? What have you done with her? Bring her back to me!_

 _Doctor, it's_ me. Her heart was silently breaking over her bondmate's frenzied confusion as he tried desperately to piece together all previous twelve lifetimes that were rattling about inside of his head.

"I remember you!" the Doctor exclaimed loudly, immediately shaking Rose from her thoughts. His eyes went wide and a bright smile suddenly overtook his features. "Professor Song! It's certainly been a while, hasn't it? I knew you couldn't stay away."

Rose gaped at the Doctor in open-mouthed shock as he turned away from her with a dismissive wave of his hand and focused his attention back on the giant dinosaur currently looming over them. However, if being compared to the Doctor's sort-of dead-ish wife wasn't bad enough, he managed to confuse her with Strax, next. Rose tried very hard not to let her bruised vanity alter her opinion of him as she tugged irritatedly against their shared mental bond, reminding the Doctor once more of their proper names and urging him to focus and calm down.

"Well, you're very similar heights ..." the Doctor muttered in confusion. His blue eyes narrowed between Rose and the small, alien man as he attempted to sort them out. "Maybe you should wear ... labels ..."

He blinked hard as his gaze suddenly became distant and unfocused and Rose could feel his thoughts beginning to grow faint and fuzzy within the back of her own head.

"Why ... why are you all doing that?" he mumbled wearily. "Why are you ...? You're all going dark ... and wobbly. Stop that!"

"Doctor ... are you alright?" Rose muttered as she cautiously attempted to approach him. However, she only managed to take one step before he stumbled back over his own feet in an attempt to keep a safe distance between them. It was clear that his confused thoughts were still too muddled to rightly recall who she was and whether or not she could be trusted.

"Never mind!" the Doctor shouted distractedly. He turned on his heel and swung his arms wildly through the air around him. "Everyone - take five!"

Rose watched with wide eyes as he suddenly went very still, wobbling unevenly on his feet for a moment before suddenly pitching forward and landing hard, face-down in the mud beneath them.

Rose gasped in surprise as she immediately rushed forward and gathered his unconscious body protectively into her arms. She had seen the Doctor regenerate right in front of her eyes once before, but the experience certainly didn't get any easier or less confusing with time and practice. She had sworn a promise of "forever" to him more times than she cared to count, but it was only now that she began to wonder what that might actually mean. How many more times would she be forced to say goodbye, only to be thrown head-first into a new relationship with a completely different man? How many more times would she be forced to watch as the person who she loved most in all of the universe was destroyed and rebuilt right before her very eyes?

"I don't understand ..." Jenny muttered as she watched Rose trace her hands awkwardly over the new man's features, "who is he? Where's the Doctor?"

"Right here," Rose replied quietly. Her gaze never once left her bondmate's slack, unconscious expression as her eyes roamed over his unfamiliar face. "That's him - that's the Doctor."

"Well, then ..." Madame Vastra piped up gently, her tone distant and apprehensive in a way that Rose had never heard it before, "here we go again ..."


	2. Chapter Two

For once, Rose found that she was glad for the TARDIS's meddling. She was immensely grateful for the help that Jenny, Vastra, and Strax posed for her. Without them, she wasn't entirely sure if she would have been able to look after the Doctor all on her own while he was in such a state. It certainly took effort on all four of their parts to get his unconscious body back to Madame Vastra's estate, and it took all of Rose's considerable strength and patience to get him changed out of his old jacket and bowtie that no longer fit him quite right and put him into something a bit more comfortable.

Rose had never thought that she might actually find herself _missing_ the hologram projectors that he had insisted they both use not so very long ago, but then again, life with the Doctor was nothing if not unpredictable.

"It's simply ... _misunderstandable_ to me ..." the Doctor growled when he rose back to consciousness a short while later. Rose was currently attempting to force him to stop wriggling long enough to slide a clean, cotton night shirt over his head. "I don't know what it is. Who _invented_ this room?"

He glared down at her as she finally managed to settle his new clothes over his shoulders. Rose met his unfamiliar gaze warily. She noticed that he was breathing heavily, as though the very act of changing his clothes had drained him of what little energy he had left. His new blue eyes were still hazy and unfocused as he stared down hard at her.

"Doctor, please," she whispered quietly, "won't you lie down? You need to rest ..." Rose met his gaze with an earnest expression and attempted to reach into his scattered, broken thoughts to try and calm him.

"But it doesn't make any sense ..." he insisted. He turned and swept one of his arms out across the small bedroom that they stood in in demonstration. "Look, it's only got a bed in it. _Why_ is there only a _bed_ in it?"

"Because it's a _bedroom_ ," Rose sighed exasperatedly. "It's for _sleeping_ in." She rolled her eyes at him and struggled to fight back the urge to shove him down onto the mattress by force, just to get him to be quiet. 

The Doctor eyes widened to comical proportions as he glanced in horror from Rose, to the bed, and back again. "Okay ... so you've got a whole room ... for not being awake in. But what's the _point_? You're just missing the room! And don't look in that mirror!"

He was scowling again as he brushed past Rose and pointed a finger angrily at the large glass mirror that was hanging on the wall behind them. "It's absolutely _furious_!" he exclaimed as he met his own gaze and glared.

"Doctor, _please_!" Rose insisted, stepping between him and his reflection and forcing him to meet her steady gaze once more. _Please, love, please calm down ..._ she begged him silently as she fought to make sense of his frazzled thoughts. She could feel a crushing hopelessness weighing down on her as she stared up at him and fought to find even the slightest hint of familiarity or recognition within his strange, new eyes.

The Doctor was still staring down at her with those thick, furrowed brows, his face leaning in close while his mind trailed away and spun off in a million different directions that Rose simply couldn't follow. "Wait a minute, why do you keep talking like _that_?" he demanded suddenly. His gaze narrowed on her suspiciously. "What's gone wrong with your accent?"

"Sorry?" Rose watched him in confusion as he stumbled away from her with a look of apprehension on his face.

"You sound all ... _English_!" He threw his arms out dramatically as he passed a helpless look around the small room. "Now you've developed a _fault_!"

Rose sighed in frustration and gritted her teeth together as she propped her hands on her hips and quietly regarded him. It seemed that no matter how many times she called out to him, she simply couldn't get him to _focus._ The Doctor's mind was still far too discordant and disconnected after being scrambled by the regeneration energy that had swept through his entire being. Rose knew that she had one last resort to use in order to grab his attention, but she was hesitant to use it.

After a few moments of consternation, Rose finally opened her mouth and whispered the Doctor's true name into the quiet of the room around them. It was a risk that she normally wouldn't have taken in the middle of a strange house and in an unfamiliar time-period, but they were in the midst of some very dire circumstances, and that called for drastic actions to be taken. She knew that using the Doctor's name was the one, true way to guarantee that she would have his full attention. It worked almost immediately as the Doctor seemed to freeze in place and turn on her with an expression of wide-eyed shock.

The name on her lips, which was normally only ever spoken with an air of reverent, loving devotion, was now whispered as a quiet, desperate plea. It felt so horribly _wrong_ that it made Rose want to cry.

"Doctor, I know that this is confusing for you ..." she murmured as gently as possible. "Believe me, it's hard for me, too. But right now, you need to _calm down_ and _rest_ , or else you're just going to make the process that much harder."

The Doctor's features fell back into his new, severe-looking scowl once more as he silently regarded her. However, he didn't argue or strain against her as Rose stepped forward and took him by the hands to lead him slowly back towards the bed. She could still feel his thoughts racing haphazardly around them in dizzying, incomplete circles as she forced his long limbs under the sheets and directed his head towards the pillow.

"I remember the last time you regenerated, you know." A rueful smile turned up Rose's features as she slowly tucked him into the newly-made bed. Memories of that life from so long ago made Rose nostalgic for a time when she had had a family and friends to fall back on whenever things like this happened. She wondered what her mother and Mickey would say if they could both see her now. "Back then it seemed that we couldn't wake you up for anything. Now it's like I can't get you to sit still."

"Had to go into a healing coma," the Doctor agreed, his voice coming out rough and distant-sounding as he gazed wearily up at her. "Taking the entire time vortex into your head will really take it out of you."

"Yeah, you're telling me," Rose teased gently.

Their easy, light-hearted banter seemed to raise the Doctor's spirits somewhat and the edge of his lips lifted ever-so-slightly as he gazed up at her. "You should sleep, too. It's past your bedtime, Amelia." He rose slightly and attempted to lift the covers around himself as though to invite her into the bed with him.

"Doctor ... it's Rose, remember?" she reminded him nervously. She didn't like the bright, feverish look that was now in his eye. His mind seemed to be tripping over his various thoughts and memories, unable to find sense in the patterns and faces of his past twelve lifetimes.

"Come along, Pond," he insisted. He was still attempting to sit up, but he was struggling against Rose's hand as she urged him back down to the bed.

"Shh, sleep now, love," she whispered softly. She leaned forward and placed her index finger against his lips to stop the rest of his frenzied words. Rose flashed him a small, sad smile as she quietly projected the sensation of unconsciousness into his thoughts and the Doctor finally let out a long, shaky sigh. His eyelids drooped wearily as the tension in his bones seemed to slacken . He still hadn't fallen completely asleep yet, but at least he had come to a halt at long last and his hallucinations seemed to have subsided for the time being.

Rose gazed down at him in pensive concentration as she studied his new features and attempted to sort out the frazzled, tangled consciousness in the back of her mind. Even now, it seemed that the Doctor's thoughts were running off without him, attempting to find sense in the mess that his regeneration had left behind.

 _Alone, alone, so alone ..._ he seemed to moan frantically.

 _You're not alone. I'm here,_ Rose assured him, her own thoughts trailing against the rough, unfocused edges of his mind.

He immediately grasped onto her presence as though she were a lifeline, his grip on her mind almost painful as he desperately tried to right himself and regain his bearings. _Don't go, don't leave, please stay ..._

Terror gripped Rose's heart in that moment, but she wasn't entirely sure if it was his or her own as he helplessly drug her down with him into the sea of chaos that was raging within him.

 _I'm not going anywhere,_ Rose assured him as confidently as possible. She fought to steady her breathing and remain within her right mind as he continued to pull against her. _Stay with me, come back to me,_ she coaxed him gently.

A pitiful, moaning sound escaped from the back of the Doctor's throat that broke Rose's heart and made her chest swell with a sharp stab of protectiveness. She moved further onto the bed beside him and took one of his hands in both of hers, noticing that his skin felt even cooler than normal as she held it close to her chest and tried to ignore the odd new shape of his fingers.

Rose had seen so many different versions of the Doctor, and she had loved every single one of them. She knew that this one would be no different, and that in time, she would find her hands fitting into his as easily as they always did, no matter what shape either of them took. She simply _had_ to believe that that was true. The alternative was ... simply unthinkable.

"Please come back." She pressed her lips to his knuckles and sent a wave of peace throughout his mind that seemed to calm the turbulent waters of his thoughts for a moment. "Please don't leave me ..."

"Rose ..." His voice was no more than a rough, muttered whisper, but it was the first time that she had heard her true name on this new man's lips. It gave her the small spark of hope that she had been looking for ever since he had changed; a promise that he was still the same man, and the bond between them hadn't been broken completely. It also gave her the confidence that she needed to pull up the edge of the bed sheets and slip into the small space at the Doctor's side. Her arms went around his middle as she settled in as close as she dared and desperately attempted to transmit some of her warmth into his chilled skin.

Rose closed her eyes and moved the palm of her hand over his chest so that she could count his heartsbeats. She used their steady rhythm to slow the pace of both of their thoughts. She felt the Doctor shift slightly, as though he were turning his head closer towards her familiar presence, but she didn't both to open her eyes and look as she quickly drifted off into unconsciousness with him, her mind joining his as they fell into a deep, restless sleep.

\-------------------

Rose's dreams were filled with memories and equations and emotions that she knew were not her own. When she was finally startled awake once more by a loud, pained roaring, she felt somehow even less rested than she had been before she had drifted off to sleep.

When she felt the cold, empty space beside her in the bed and realized that the Doctor had somehow managed to disappear into the night, she immediately reached out over their bond in an attempt to find him. However, she was met with nothing more than a flurry of panic and a thick mental barrier that kept her firmly separated from the rest of the Doctor's thoughts. It seemed that he was slowly coming back to himself, but he was determined to keep her shielded from the tangled, chaotic mess in his head that he had accidentally pulled her into before.

This theory was further proven to be true when she joined Jenny, Vastra, and Strax and they found the Doctor standing on an old stone railing and looking down at the flaming remnants of the dinosaur that they had accidentally time traveled into Victorian London.

"Doctor, what are you doing?" Rose called up to him in quiet concern. She silently pulled against their bond and begged for him to come down and talk to her, or at least share with her what it was that was currently troubling his thoughts so much, but she was met with nothing more than silence as he refused to even turn around and meet her gaze.

"She was scared," he breathed quietly as if to himself. "She was scared and alone. I brought her here, and look what they did ..."

Jenny, Vastra, and Strax all attempted to help the Doctor to see reason, but he seemed determined to be obstinate as he growled down at all of them. He also continued to ignore Rose as she silently felt out the edges of his silent, closed-off mind.

"Why can't I meet a _decent_ species?" he groaned in frustration. "Planet of the _pudding brains_!"

"Doctor ..." Rose refused to let her bondmate's biting words get to her as they once might have done. "I know you're upset, but you need to _calm down_ and talk to us. What is the question?"

"A dinosaur is burning in the heart of London," he growled, "nothing left but _smoke_ and _flame_!" He finally turned to meet Rose's gaze once more with a carefully blank expression that did nothing to disguise the anger glowing in his eyes. "The question is ... have there been any similar murders?"

Jenny, Vastra, and Strax all exchanged a weighted look between themselves before Madame Vastra replied gravely, "Yes. Yes, there have."


	3. Chapter Three

Rose shouted and reached out helplessly over the railing as the Doctor suddenly disappeared from sight. He turned without a backwards glance and fell outside of her reach, swallowed up by the black water below. "That daft, impossible, _stupid_ ..."

"So, the Doctor's taken up the case," Madame Vastra interrupted, stepping forward and cutting off Rose's angry, biting words. "That means that if we are to see him again, we must do the same."

Unfortunately, "taking up the case" without the help of a time machine meant assimilating into the daily life of a nineteenth-century household and becoming a part of Madame Vastra's extensive estate. Taking the slow path was something that Rose hadn't had to do ever since she had returned to this universe, and without the Doctor's presence by her side or in her head to accompany her through the experience, she found herself chafing against the confines of a normal human life.

She wondered idly - not for the first time - what it must be like for companions like Jenny, Vastra, and Strax. They had to live and carry on with the day-to-day tasks outside of the TARDIS, experiencing the Doctor in their lives like a whirlwind that would blow through and then disappear just as quickly as it came. Their excitement at having something new to investigate made Rose wonder if it was even possible to lead a truly normal life after one met and traveled with the Doctor.

However, all thoughts of "normal" were quickly abandoned as Rose uncovered the strange newspaper advert that drew her towards a small Italian restaurant right in the heart of London. It seemed that the Doctor really had gotten his mind back after all, and he was determined to be just as cagey and elusive as ever.

Rose couldn't deny that she was warily suspicious of the fact that no matter how hard she searched her telepathic bond, she couldn't seem to breach the mental barriers that the Doctor had created against her. Why was he bothering to call for a meeting like this, when he could just as easily have asked her out to lunch without the need for words or games?

The whole situation was suspect, and Rose found herself eyeing the establishment critically as she waited for the Doctor to show up and explain himself. He was nearby, she was certain of that - but with the way that he was purposefully keeping her out of his thoughts, it was impossible for her to tell where he was or what he was planning.

He ended up appearing just as quickly and mysteriously as he had disappeared. Rose suppressed her gasp of surprise by curling up her nose at him in annoyed disapproval as she met his hard, intense gaze and took in his haggard appearance.

"What's wrong?" the Doctor asked in confusion as she glared across the table at him.

"Well, the _smell_ , for starters," Rose replied coolly, "but really, there's a list. Would you like to hear them all?"

"No, I really wouldn't ..." he grumbled, crossing his arms petulantly across his chest and projecting his glare out at the restaurant around them.

"Doctor, where have you _been_?" Rose demanded earnestly. "And what are you _wearing_?"

"Just, er, you know ..." he muttered awkwardly, refusing to meet her gaze, "been wandering around a bit. Met a very nice tramp, who gave me his coat."

"Oh, he just _gave_ you his coat, did he?" Rose asked, narrowing her gaze on him suspiciously.

The Doctor's eyes darted up to meet hers and then quickly trailed away again with a look of chastisement. "Er, no ..." he admitted sheepishly. "I paid him."

"But you don't have any money."

"I ... had a watch."

Rose's eyes widened in surprise as she suddenly glanced down at the Doctor's bare left wrist and realized that he had given away the familiar gold watch that he had always worn in his previous incarnation. The fact that he had so thoughtlessly thrown it away hurt her more than she thought it would. It felt as though he were somehow betraying her memory of the man who she had loved and lost not so very long ago. When she blinked hard and looked up at him again, she saw that he was watching her with a new, complicated expression on his features.

"You swapped your favorite watch for that coat, that's maybe not a good deal." For once she was glad that the Doctor had shielded his thoughts away from her so that he wouldn't be able to pick up on her sense bitter anger.

"Are you cross with me?" he asked blatantly anyway as he continued to watch her. His head tilted slightly to the side as though that would help him to better puzzle out her current mood.

"I am _not_ cross," Rose snapped irritably. " _But_ if I _was_ cross, it would be all your fault, and ... Yes, I am cross."

"I guessed that," the Doctor reminded her with a proud, pointed look. Rose rolled her eyes at him and sighed in frustration, prompting him to continue, "And if I hadn't changed my face, would you be cross?"

"I would be cross if I wasn't cross!" Rose snapped, glaring up into his dark, searching expression.

"Why?" the Doctor demanded defensively.

" _Why_? Doctor, you just ... _disappeared_ into the night - no message, no goodbye, not even a small kiss on the cheek, and then you just ... shut yourself off so that I couldn't find you. Do you understand how _worried_ I've been? How worried we've _all_ been? Why would you do something like that?"

"Why were you _worried_?" The Doctor's brow furrowed again in a look of indignant confusion as he continued to stare at her from across the table. "Did you really think I wouldn't be able to handle myself? It's nineteenth-century England out there, not the height of the London Blitz!"

Rose narrowed her eyes on him with a dangerously as he casually attempted to steer the conversation towards her own past mistakes so that he could conveniently avoid their current predicament.

"Well, running off with a newly regenerated body while people are spontaneously combusting sounds a little bit worse than hanging from a barrage balloon to me," she hissed in retaliation.

"You were wearing a Union Jack t-shirt!"

"You don't even know who you are right now! What if something had happened to you? What if you'd gotten lost? What if ...?" The horrible, terrifying possibilities were simply endless, and Rose's words trailed off into silence as she furrowed her brow at the table between them and tried not to let her fears run away with her.

Suddenly, she felt a small shift in the back of her thoughts, almost like a resigned sigh. The Doctor slowly lowered his mental shields just far enough to convey a sense of regretful remorse directly into her mind. _I'm sorry,_ he whispered, not meeting her eye as he offered her a quick, apologetic mental embrace before immediately shutting himself off from her once more. Rose felt her own mind chase after his presence on instinct, desperate to feel their connection once more and silently willing him to open up to her.

"Just tell me one thing, Doctor," she murmured quietly as she lowered her gaze to her hands and silently schooled her expression into a blank, emotionless mask, "if you've been out all night on the town making friends with tramps, then when did you have time to do _this_?" She reached forward and held up the newspaper that she had brought with her, displaying for him the advert that called for the "Impossible Girl".

"Do what?" The Doctor reached forward and took the newspaper from her hands so he could scowl down at it. "You placed the ad in the newspaper, I saw it and figured out your little riddle, and then I came here to meet you, just like you wanted. There were better ways you could have done that, by the way." He paused to roll his eyes at her in a way that instantly had Rose feeling irritated again. "Really, Clara, I thought we were past all of these silly games ..."

The fake name bit at her in a way that it hadn't done in a long time. Rose felt her jaw tighten in frustration as she glared at him. " _I_ didn't place the ad," she insisted stubbornly, " _you_ placed the ad."

"No, I didn't."

"Yes - _you_ placed the ad, _I_ figured it out. 'Impossible Girl', see?" Rose ripped the newspaper from his hands and shoved it back into his face a bit more roughly than was strictly necessary.

"No, look," the Doctor sighed wearily, "that's a message _from_ the Impossible Girl."

"No, it's _for_ the ..."

Their eyes suddenly met in matching expressions of horror as realization seemed to dawn on them at the exact same moment. "Oh ..." the Doctor breathed in understanding.

"Oh," Rose agreed quietly.

"Well, if neither of us placed that ad, then that means that this is a trap," the Doctor stated definitively.

Rose gasped in surprise and pain as he suddenly reached forward and plucked a single, long brown curl from off of the side of her head. "Ow!" she hissed, glaring at him as he held up the strand of hair and then let it fall uselessly to the ground.

"There is something extremely wrong with everybody else in this room," the Doctor muttered distractedly as he began to eye the rest of the crowded restaurant around them.

"Basically, don't you always think that?" Rose leaned closer and crossed her arms against the table in a direct, challenging sort of way.

To her surprise, the Doctor didn't pull away as she was expecting him to. In fact, he leaned in further and bent his head closer as he whispered to her out of the side of his mouth. "Look at them," he murmured conspiratorially. However, when Rose moved to do just that, he leaned in even closer as though to block her gaze with his own head. "No!" he hissed under his breath. "Not like that! Look _without_ looking."

Rose flashed him a distinctly unamused scowl as she leaned even closer on her crossed arms. Her head bent very close to the Doctor as she tilted her gaze out towards the surrounding crowd. She held her breath as she realized that while she was scanning the area, the Doctor seemed to be staring very intently at her lips. Out of the corner of her eye, Rose could see his brow furrowing in an expression that she couldn't seem to decipher as his own hesitant breath ghosted over the skin of her face.

"They look fine to me, they're just eating," Rose whispered, suddenly finding it difficult to turn back and meet his gaze once again.

The Doctor's blue eyes flicked up to hers as he raised those menacing brows at her in a pointed expression. "Are they?"

He was right, of course - no one else in the surrounding restaurant was eating. They were just lifting glasses and utensils to their mouths in timed, robotic intervals as they stared blankly at nothing. None of them were talking, either, and the Doctor soon pointed out one more important detail - they weren't even _breathing_.

"What do we do?" Rose whispered nervously as she reached forward and busily began fidgeting with her menu in an attempt to appear normal.

"Well ... you don't want to eat, do you?" the Doctor asked, awkwardly eyeing her fidgeting hands.

"Oh, you always were a cheap date ..." she hissed under her breath in reply. Her irritated tone did nothing to conceal the slight, upward turn of her lips as Rose continued to stare down hard at the menu before her.

"What are you talking about? I've taken you on loads of expensive dates!" the Doctor insisted. "Or does all of the majesty of time and space not count?"

"Tell you what," Rose replied as she warily cast her gaze around the still, silent room once more, "let's just say you owe me one and leave it at that. For now, how about we find somewhere else to eat?"

"Good idea," he agreed readily.

However, the second that the two of them stood up from their seats, the entire rest of the restaurant stood up as well. Every step that they attempted to take towards the door was matched by the odd, robotic people taking a step closer to them in return.

The Doctor and Rose returned to their seats in silent defeat, but they didn't have to wait long before they were suddenly being catapulted down into the depths of the restaurant with restraints tied tightly around their arms and legs.

"Okay, now you _really_ owe me one," Rose huffed in annoyance as she struggled against the metal bands binding her to the seat.

"Oh, just add it to the list."


	4. Chapter Four

Rose felt an intense sensation of foreboding as she and the Doctor cautiously began to navigate what he so cheerily referred to as "the larder". It seemed that they had landed in what should have been a basement, but was actually a crashed spaceship that was somehow out of its time. It wasn't long before a group of killer cyborgs from the future began to wake up and reanimate around them, but Rose only had enough time to force the Doctor through the doors and into safety ahead of her, leaving her trapped and left to deal with the danger on her own.

"Doctor, _open the door_!" she hissed as her hands scrabbled uselessly against the thick layer of metal that separated them.

"Sorry ... too slow." His unfamiliar blue eyes blinked back at her distantly through the grate that allowed them to look at each other but not touch. "No point in them catching us both."

 _Don't you dare!_ Rose growled as she pointedly yanked at her end of their mental connection. 

However, the Doctor ignored her completely as he turned his back on her and ran down the hallway towards freedom without her, abandoning her all on her own, just as he had been doing ever since he had changed into this new body. Rose couldn't help but wonder if this was just going to be a thing that he did now. Was the Doctor always going to be leaving her behind in his wake, keeping a distance between them when she desperately longed for familiarity and connection?

 _Doctor, what are you doing?_ she demanded as she pleadingly pulled against his mind and begged for him to come back. _Don't leave me ..._

The Doctor flashed her a small wave of reassurance that ended abruptly when he suddenly shielded his mind from hers once more and his thoughts instantly went eerily, deadly silent within her head. Rose felt her heart break in utter betrayal and she made sure that she projected it as strongly as she could across their dim connection as she faced off against the encroaching cyborgs alone. The robotic foreigners quickly saw through her attempt at disguise and immediately brought her forward for questioning.

"Where is the other one?" The man who appeared to be in charge was watching her with a blank expression from where he sat on his charging station before her. "You will tell us, or you will be destroyed."

"Go on, then. Do it." Rose forced herself to her feet despite the utter sense of hopelessness that weighed down on her shoulders and begged for her to simply give up and give in. 

She was still silently brooding over her hurt and disappointment as she glared up at the strange half-faced man and dared him to try and test her. She honestly didn't know why she had expected this time around with the Doctor to be any different. It was all turning out to be exactly the same as it had been that first Christmas that they had spent together. The Doctor was out trying to reconfigure himself, and Rose was left to pick up the pieces and face off against the alien menace alone, with no tools and no plan and no clue as to what was going on or who to get out of this situation alive.

The robotic man before her tilted his head in question as his eyes looked blankly over her, seeming to try and assess the poisonous glare that she was leveling in his direction. As Rose met his gaze as evenly as she could, she suddenly sensed a strange prickling in the back of her mind that she wished very much would just shut up and go away. She was _tired_ \- tired of running, tired of fighting, and tired of chasing after a man who clearly wanted nothing at all to do with her.

"I'm not going to answer any of your questions," she continued stubbornly. "So you have to do it - you have to kill me." She squared her jaw in retaliation as she stared down at the cyborg before her and determinedly called his bluff. 

The prickling in the back of Rose's mind was growing more pronounced now. She had to fight not to choke on the lump in her throat as she suddenly recognized it for what it was - the last remaining hint of her bond with the Doctor slowly reawakening within the back of her thoughts. It seemed that he hadn't completely abandoned her after all. In fact, he was still close, lurking somewhere in the ship nearby. Rose wondered if he was actually planning to just sit back and watch as these cyborgs from the future killed her and used her for spare parts. Did he really have so little regard for her now, just because he had changed his face? Would he even mourn her if the cyborgs made good on their threat and destroyed her?

Rose realized, belatedly, why this whole situation felt so familiar to her. It wasn't just Christmas from 2005 - it was eighteenth-century France, too. The Doctor was off galavanting about without her and leaving her to fight off the deadly robots all on her own.

Well, if she had managed to make it through back then, then she could _certainly_ make her way out now. Rose wasn't about to go running off after the Doctor and begging for his help when he clearly had other things - or other _people_ \- that he deemed to be more important than herself.

Suddenly, the itch of consciousness at the back of Rose's mind came roaring back to life as the Doctor loosened his hold on the barriers between them and his presence instantly came rushing back into her head. _Don't give up on me, Rose, not yet ..._

Rose didn't need to use words to convey her intense sense of distrust and betrayal as she clearly displayed for him why she had very good reason to doubt his conviction.

 _Hang on just a little longer. I'm here, I'm with you,_ he whispered gently.

"You _will_ tell us where the other one is," the half-man insisted, instantly shocking Rose back into the present danger that surrounded her.

"Nope," Rose answered him as resolutely as possible. _You'd better have a plan ..._ she added venomously as she went against her better judgement and begrudgingly reached out to the Doctor once more.

 _Working on it,_ was the only reassurance that he offered her before he retreated back behind his mental barriers. She tried not to sigh out loud in frustrated defeat as the added presence in the back of her mind grew still once more.

"You will be destroyed," the cyborg stated plainly.

"Destroy me, then."

"The information can be extracted by means of your suffering," the man continued, the clockwork pieces of his brain rattling away as he seemed to consider her.

"Are you trying to scare me?" Rose muttered darkly. "Well, I'm already bloody terrified of dying, and I'll endure a lot of pain for a _very_ long time before I give up the information that's keeping me alive. How long have you got?"

She stepped closer in an attempt to seem more intimidating, but was immediately startled back again when the half-man rose to his feet before her. She watched in horror as he detached his human hand from his right wrist and began to advance on her with a glowing, blue torch of fire that extended from his arm.

"Okay! Okay, okay, okay, yes - I am _crying_ ," Rose admitted desperately as she felt the panicked tears beginning to spring up and overflow from within her, "but it's just because I am very, _very_ frightened of you, and if _you_ know _anything_ about human beings, that means that you're in _a lot_ of trouble!"

" _Where_ is the other one?" the half-man repeated determinedly, taking another step towards her and brandishing the dangerous flame in her direction.

"I don't know." Rose heaved a small, defeated sigh as she gazed up at the cyborg's face in unrestrained terror. "But I know where he _will_ be - where he will _always_ be."

 _Please, Doctor, please don't leave me now ..._ she begged silently as she reached her hand out into the empty air behind her. She closed her eyes tight as she also reached out with her mind. _Please, please don't abandon me again ..._

The hum in the back of her thoughts suddenly swelled once more and formed into a deep, complicated emotion that she had never felt from the Doctor in any form before. It was something new and powerful that she had no name for at all.

"If the Doctor is still the Doctor," she continued, glaring at the cyborg before her as her confidence slowly began to return, "he will _have my back_."

Rose gasped in surprise despite herself as a hand suddenly grasped her own and pulled her roughly backwards. She turned around just in time to see the Doctor pulling a skin mask from off of his head to reveal those new features of his once more. He had a bright grin drawing up his features in the first real smile that she had seen on this body yet. She noticed that it made his mouth look oddly crooked, as though he wasn't quite sure of how to form the shape of true amusement anymore.

"Hello, hello, rubbish robots," he greeted the cyborgs grandly. He turned to flash Rose an appreciative wink as he added, "Five-foot-one and crying - they never stood a chance."

Rose shot him an indignant look, but he ignored her as he turned his glare back on the man currently threatening her instead. Rose felt a swell of defensive anger sweep through their bond before he rushed forward and knocked the cyborg's flaming arm aside. "Stop it," he growled menacingly. "You're out of your depth, sir." He flashed Rose a considering look over his shoulder as he added, "You're brilliant on adrenaline, by the way, did I ever tell you that?"

"Yeah, and you're _rubbish_ with timing!" she snapped back as she crossed her arms against her chest and stubbornly glared at him.

"Sorry, just got ... caught up in the moment," he muttered sheepishly.

"Yeah, isn't that what happened _last time_?"

"What are you talking about?" the Doctor asked, narrowing his eyes on her in confusion.

"Although, I guess I really shouldn't be complaining," Rose continued as though she hadn't heard him. "At least _this_ time you're not sneaking off to snog Madame de Pompadour!"

The Doctor's eyes grew wide as he stared at her in silence for a moment and Rose might have laughed at his expression if she weren't currently so cross with him. As it was, she simply glared as realization slowly dawned over him.

"Ah!" he shouted in sudden understanding. "Ah, yes, of course! How could I forget Reinette!"

Rose could only stare at him with wordless, indignant anger. She pushed her burning hurt and resentment into her bondmate's thoughts and watched his big, dopey grin immediately disappear into a look of chastisement. It seemed that a lifetime spent being married to the Doctor still wasn't enough time to erase all of the pain that he had caused when he had abandoned her to go chasing after another pretty blonde woman all those years ago. Rose still had plenty of spite and anger left to go around.

"Right, sorry ..." he muttered awkwardly as he quickly attempted to backpedal and regain control of the conversation once more. "That's not exactly what I was meant to say ..."

"Oh, just get on with it." Rose rolled her eyes at him and forcefully pushed the memory of eighteenth-century France and the Doctor's silent, pleading thoughts for forgiveness out of her mind.

"Just say the word, dear," the Doctor muttered as he crossed the room to join her at her side. His movements were stiff and awkward as though he wasn't even sure how to stand next to her anymore, let alone talk to her.

"I don't want to say it," Rose replied stubbornly. She crossed her arms against her chest as the two of them stepped deftly out of the cyborg's reach and began backing away slowly.

"I've guessed it already," the Doctor assured her with a lofty, put-upon sigh.

Rose gritted her teeth in frustration once more as she reached up to press the comm link that Strax had inputted into the top button of her dress before she had come to the restaurant to seek out the Doctor. In unison they stated the code word that Madame Vastra had put in place: "Geronimo."


	5. Chapter Five

The Doctor ended up leaving Rose behind again in order to chase after the half-face man. She supposed she was grateful that at least this time, he hadn't abandoned her all on her own. Rose managed to make it out of the spaceship disguising itself as a restaurant with the help of Jenny, Vastra, and Strax while the Doctor sailed off on his own solo mission to put an end to the cyborg who seemed to be in charge of the whole operation.

He was still keeping his side of their bond eerily, stubbornly silent, and Rose had all but given up on trying to reach out to him. Instead, she settled back into her strange, day-to-day life in Victorian England with a green woman from the dawn of time and her strange band of misfits.

She couldn't explain why she woke up one morning and decided to change into her old, modern-day clothes instead of the nineteenth-century dresses that she had been forced to wear ever since the Doctor had left her behind, but she didn't spare it much thought. She should have been more surprised when she heard the whirring sounds of the TARDIS engines later that day, but she couldn't spare time for such trivial thoughts when she was already running headlong after the achingly familiar sound of home.

 _Oh, dear, I've missed you!_ Rose called out desperately as she finally reached the old blue box and practically threw her arms around its girth in excited reunion. The ship's song in her head was back to its usual, steady melody. The TARDIS greeted her with a warm apology, making sure that Rose knew that it was on her behalf as well as the Doctor's.

 _Where's he been?_ Rose asked curiously. _What have you two been up to?_

The TARDIS merely made an amused, mysterious noise in response and beckoned her forward, eagerly unlocking the doors for her so that she could step freely through the threshold. As soon as the doors were opened, Rose realized immediately that the interior had been changed again, though the alterations were a bit more subtle this time. There were just a few changes to the console controls and a new row of bookshelves that lined the upper levels of the room, along with a glowing orange rotor rather than the cool blue that she had grown so accustomed to.

"You've redecorated," she murmured appreciatively as she gazed around the ship's sleek, modern surfaces.

"Yes." The Doctor's unexpected, quiet response instantly drew Rose's gaze up to the second level of the room, where she could see him reclining in a high-backed leather armchair and watching her with a pensive expression. She could tell that he was waiting for more - possibly eager to hear her opinion on whether or not she approved - but she obstinately refused to give it.

 _It's lovely,_ she admitted to the TARDIS silently as she ran a loving hand across her console. She made sure to use the one form of communication that she knew the Doctor wouldn't be able to hear while he was so stubbornly closing himself off from her.

The ship's consciousness trilled appreciatively in response, causing the Doctor's gaze to narrow on Rose in suspicion. His sharp gaze was intense and pensive as he finally pushed himself out of his chair and slowly descended the steps to meet her on level ground.

"I'm the Doctor," he told her, his voice low and weighty and filled with the many other things that he refused to say, "I've lived for over two-thousand years, and not all of them were good. I've made many mistakes, and it's about time that I did something about that."

He circled the console the long way around, his gaze never once leaving hers as he slowly came to a stop before her. Rose noticed that he still made sure to keep a generous distance between them.

The consciousness within the back of her mind suddenly began to grow and blossom until she was able to reach out over their bond and feel the solid outline of the Doctor's presence once more. He still didn't fully open up to her, not all the way - but the sensation of her bondmate's thoughts against her own was enough to take Rose's breath away as she eagerly embraced the partner who she had been missing ever since he had decided to cut himself off from her.

 _I'm sorry,_ he muttered gently. _For everything ..._

Rose pulled against his thoughts, silently willing him to give her the full connection that she still so desperately longed for, but he continued to restrain himself as he met her gaze steadily and waited for her to make some sort of response.

Finally, she narrowed her eyes on him as she muttered out loud, "'Two-thousand years'? Is that the number you're going with, now?" She shook her head at him exasperatedly, but she couldn't suppress her smirk as she glanced back up at him. "You always were rubbish at keeping time. Seems like you're getting worse in your old age."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" the Doctor demanded, his brows furrowing as he gazed down at her in confusion. Clearly, he had not been expecting _this_ to be her response.

Rose chuckled lightly under her breath as she tentatively took a step forward, watching intently as her one, small movement immediately made the Doctor grow tense and defensive. She bit her lip as she hesitantly raised her gaze back to his and deliberately reached out to him with her mind instead.

 _What's wrong?_ she asked gently. _Why won't you talk with me?_

Rose held her breath as the Doctor's gaze dropped to her lips for just the smallest fraction of a second before he spun away from her and quickly pulled a lever on the TARDIS console that put them back into flight again. When he twirled back to face her once more, he had his new coat thrown open to reveal the bright red lining within and his hands were stuffed into his pockets in a casual stance that belied his stiff posture.

"What do you think?" he asked, deliberately seeking her approval yet again.

Rose took a long moment to look him over, a smile turning up her lips as she slowly met his gaze once more. He was still tall, though he was a bit skinnier than he had been before. The jacket he wore was perfectly tailored to him, and she found that she liked the strict, professional air that it gave him. This version of him clearly favored dark colors, as her gaze skimmed over his matching black boots and trousers. He was also wearing a crisp white Oxford that he kept buttoned up to his neck. Rose thought it looked oddly empty and a bit too formal with no tie of any sort to hold it in place.

All in all, she thought he looked rather dashing, but she wasn't about to stroke his ego and tell him so - especially when he still insisted on being so withholding himself.

"Where are you taking us?" she murmured off-handedly in response. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see his expression fall in disappointment as she pointedly dismissed his request for her input once more. Rose slowly began to circle the TARDIS console and he moved to mirror her steps in order to meet her on the other side of it.

"Thought I'd take you back home," he replied with a casual shrug. He carefully refused to meet her eyes as he stopped and leaned his arms against the console a good distance away from her. "I thought you might still be looking forward to that Christmas dinner."

"'Home'?" Rose repeated in confusion. She screwed up her eyebrows at him as she carefully watched his distant, weary expression. "What, you mean the Maitlands's house?"

"If you like," the Doctor replied with another disinterested shrug.

Rose realized suddenly that she _was_ longing to go home - but not to that strange house on Earth that she barely even knew. Her home was the TARDIS - it always had been, and it always would be. She wondered if the Doctor was subtly trying to tell her something as she looked up in consternation at the old ship's time rotor and contemplated what she was going to do if he actually didn't want her to travel with him anymore. Could she really go back to a normal, human life in a world that she didn't even rightfully belong to anymore?

"And ... if I don't?" Her voice was barely more than a whisper as she managed to catch the Doctor's eye again from across the console.

He was watching her with a hard expression on his face, but she thought she saw the slightest lift to the edges of his lips before the moment was interrupted by the cell phone that Rose still had in her pocket. It was the same device that the Doctor had given her when she had returned to Earth earlier in an attempt to prepare a normal, happy Christmas for the two of them.

Rose quickly retrieved the ringing device from her pocket and flashed the Doctor a look of confusion as she glanced down at the unknown string of numbers on the screen before her. Who else could possibly have this number? Who else would even care to call her?

"You'd better get that," the Doctor told her gently, the smile on his lips growing slightly as he watched her, "it might be your boyfriend."

Rose furrowed her brow at him in silent question as she hit the green button on the phone's screen and held the device up to her ear. "Hello?" she asked as she turned away from the Doctor and waited for the person on the other end of the line to answer.

There was a long pause before a familiar male voice replied, "It's me."

"Sorry? It's who?"

"It's me, Rose - the Doctor." His voice sounded breathless and strained, as though he had just finished running a marathon and was still fighting hard to recover.

"What do you mean, 'the Doctor'?" Rose asked. She felt her heart skip a beat in her chest as her mind instantly reached for the source of her bondmate's familiar voice. However, instead of being met with his familiar, comforting presence, she found only a cool wall of indifference as the man across the room from her continued to resolutely shut her out of his thoughts.

"I'm phoning you from Trenzalore," he explained slowly, "from before I changed. I mean, it's all still to happen for me. It's coming - oh, it's a-coming. Not long now. I can ... _feel_ it."

Rose turned around in breathless wonder to stare hard at the man who still stood before her. It was clear that he was fighting very hard not to fidget as he watched her every reaction, still waiting for her response, even now.

"Why?" she demanded as she felt the first of her heartbroken tears begin to break free and trail down her cheek. "Why would you do this?"

"Because I think it's gonna be a _whopper_ ," the man on the phone replied simply, "and I think that you might be scared. But you mustn't be scared, love. Never be scared of change. It happens to all of us, after all."

"So who is it?" the man across the room called out to her suddenly.

"Is that the Doctor?" the man on the phone asked.

"Is that the Doctor?" the man in the TARDIS echoed knowingly.

"Yes ..." Rose replied breathlessly, not even sure which man she was addressing any more.

"He sounds old," the Doctor on the phone muttered ruefully. " _Please_ tell me I didn't get old, anything but _old_ ..."

"Says the man who doesn't even know his own, proper age." Rose laughed out loud despite herself as she quietly shook her head at her bondmate's vanity. "He says you're over two-thousand-years-old, now. How's a girl supposed to keep up when you keep doubling your age like that?"

The Doctor in the room with her glanced down at the console controls to hide his smile, but the Doctor on the phone sighed heavily as he muttered, "I've missed you, Rose - still do. Always have ... always will." He paused for a moment before he added, "Say you'll stay with him, Rose, eh? For me? He needs you."

"Is that what this has all been about?" She felt her heart skip a beat within her chest as realization slowly dawned on her. "Is that seriously why you're phoning?" She shook her head again as she stared hard a the man across the room from her. He was currently watching her with an intense look from underneath his furrowed brows. "You daft, old idiot."

The Doctor on the phone chuckled under his breath before he replied, "Goodbye, Rose. I'll be seeing ya."

She hung up the phone before she could be tempted to beg him to stay on the line with her, just to hear his familiar voice for a little bit longer.

"Well?" the Doctor before her asked leadingly as he struck another forced, casual stance.

"Well what?" Rose demanded. She placed her hands on her hips and flashed him a blank, unamused look.

"He asked you a question," the Doctor replied awkwardly, clearly struggling to find the words that he knew needed to be said. "Will you help me?"

"Well, are you going to let me?"

Her response seemed to throw the Doctor for a loop for a moment. His eyebrows furrowed together in confusion and he shifted his weight awkwardly from side to side as murmured hesitantly, "What?"

Rose rolled her eyes at him exaggeratedly before crossing the TARDIS console room in four long strides to stand directly in front of him. She stubbornly invaded the bubble of personal space that he had been upholding around himself ever since he had come back into his right mind again and refused to allow him the space to back away. She narrowed her eyes up at him as she purposefully poked at his silent, sealed off thoughts with her own and waited for him to catch her hint.

The Doctor watched her for a moment with a dark, haunted expression before he carefully obeyed and allowed the walls around his thoughts to crumble and fall away. What Rose found waiting for her there was enough to take her breath away as she was nearly overcome by the conflicting emotions of both love and fear. It seemed that the Doctor had been keeping her at arm's length in an attempt to somehow shield her from himself. He was afraid of hurting her, both physically and emotionally, while he settled back into his right mind and new body. But there was no denying the heated flame of longing and desire that burned through it all, making him desperate for her approval and acceptance.

Rose narrowed her eyes on him as she attempted to dig deeper. She wanted him to show her the full extent of all that lay within his mind that he was being so oddly cagey about, but he silently begged for her to respect his wishes and let him come to terms with things on his own time. She was forced to warily accept his reticence as he continued to shutter away parts of himself outside of her reach.

 _You really are a daft, old idiot,_ Rose reminded him silently. She heaved a loud sigh and suddenly threw her arms around his neck, instantly forcing him into a hug that the Doctor's new body didn't seem to know how to reciprocate. She made sure to project into his mind all of the long hours of desperation and yearning that she had been forced to endure on her own while she waited for him to come around. She showed him all of the worry and hurt that she had felt when his thoughts had suddenly gone silent inside of her head. _Don't you ever think of doing that again,_ she warned him dangerously as she felt the tense line of his body relaxing slightly into her.

"I ... I don't think I'm a _hugging_ person now," the Doctor muttered as he fidgeted his arms awkwardly around her. He never quite ended up returning her embrace as he seemed to struggle with what to do or say next.

"I'm not sure you get a vote," Rose replied as she turned and placed a hard kiss against his cheek.

There was another hint of a smile on his lips as he hesitantly met her gaze, but Rose smiled wide enough for the both of them as he easily agreed. "Whatever you say ..."


	6. Chapter Six

Returning to the Maitland house ended up being about as strange and awkward an experience as Rose had imagined it might be. She kept the best straight face that she could as she sadly announced to her small, adoptive family that she had had to break up with her landscaper/nanny boyfriend - due to his refusal to show up for Christmas dinner, no less (the Doctor scowled at her with an unamused look when she mentioned that). However, the Maitlands seemed to accept the lie that the new Doctor was Rose's visiting uncle easily enough (another detail that the Doctor didn't appreciate - he thought that he looked _way_ too young to play her uncle) and graciously allowed him to join their holiday dinner.

The evening was so casual and easy that it made Rose nervous. She wasn't used to things quietly going to plan. However, their normal holiday was soon interrupted when George announced, "Oh, there was mail for you the other day, Clara!"

Before Rose could ask the man what he was talking about, he stood and crossed to a small pile of papers that were sitting on a nearby table. He rifled through them until he suddenly retrieved a crisp, cream-colored envelope and turned to place it in Rose's waiting hands.

"Someone ... sent me _mail_?" Rose cast a suspicious gaze from the envelope addressed to "Clara Oswald", to the Doctor, and back again. He seemed to be just as surprised and confused by this new information as she was, if his deeply furrowed brow was anything to go by.

"I think it's from the school," George replied as he casually returned to his seat at the head of their small table once more.

"The school?" the Doctor repeated curiously. "What school?"

"Coal Hill, it's where Angie and I go," Artie replied succinctly.

"Oh, no ... Don't tell me ..." Angie gasped dramatically. "You're not going to ... _teach_ there, are you?"

" _Teach_?" Rose repeated in alarmed confusion.

"Well, we always knew that you'd get back into it eventually," George replied with a casual shrug. "You can't nanny forever, after all. You should have told us that you were interested in working at Coal Hill, though, Clara. I could have written you a recommendation or something."

"I'm ... a _teacher_?" Rose's surprise was not diminished in the least by the Maitlands's casual acceptance of this strange new information. She had never taught a subject before in her entire life - in fact, she had never _nannied_ before, either. The occasional babysitting that she had done for Tony's descendants back in Pete's World was about as close as she had ever gotten to either profession. Was she really expected to simply pick up a day job while the Doctor went off running around the stars without her? How was she even meant to manage a classroom full of kids when she had absolutely no training or background knowledge in the area at all?

When she glanced up to fix her eyes on the Doctor and ask for his input, she found that he was staring intently at the school seal that was imprinted on the envelope within her hands with an expression of dark concentration.

 _Doctor ...?_ Rose prompted him silently.

"We should, er ... we should go!" he announced suddenly. The dinnerware rattled loudly as he jumped to his feet and his long legs awkwardly jostled against the dining room table.

"Go ...?" George repeated curiously. "Go where? It's Christmas!"

"Is it? Really? Blimey, it's like the holiday that never ends," the Doctor grumbled under his breath. Then, addressing the family before him once more, he added brightly, "Yes! There's, er ... something _very_ important that I forgot to tell Clara earlier. Something that absolutely can't wait!"

He was already backing away towards the door and not bothering to wait to see if Rose would join him.

"But we were going to open presents ..." Artie protested disappointedly.

"Oh, go on without me," Rose encouraged him with a bright smile. "Just save the best ones for when I get back. We won't be long, I promise!"

"You said that the last time ..." George reminded her quietly under his breath as he flashed her a look of unamusement.

"Hey, isn't that the TARDIS?" Angie piped up from where she stood by the dining room window, peering curiously out on the front lawn where the Doctor had parked his time ship earlier.

"'Til next year!" The Doctor shouted his goodbyes over his shoulder as he turned without another word and ran for the door.

"We really will be right back," Rose promised with a small, apologetic smile.

George Maitland simply sighed and rolled his eyes as he began to prepare to clear the table that they had so quickly abandoned. "Alright, we'll see you then, Clara," he muttered in defeat. "Just ... stay safe."

Rose flashed her small adoptive family a bright, excited grin as she replied, "Always!" and then immediately darted through the door after the Doctor.

\--------------------

"So?" Rose asked as she finally stepped back through the TARDIS doors and found the Doctor leaning against the console with a dark, stormy expression looming behind his eyes. "Are you planning on telling me what this is all about?"

"Who put that advert in the paper?" he murmured, his gaze raising to meet hers with a dark intensity that she hadn't been expecting.

"Sorry?" Rose stuttered to a halt on the opposite side of the console from him and hesitantly attempted to gauge his expression.

"Who gave you my number?" he continued insistently, raising to his full height and moving a couple of steps closer to her. "Long time ago, remember? You were given the number of a computer helpline, and you ended up phoning the TARDIS. Who gave you that number?"

"I ... don't know," Rose replied slowly, her brow furrowing as she thought back to the many strange instances where she and the Doctor had been forced to reunite in this universe. "Angie said that there was a woman ... A woman in a shop ..."

"Then there's a woman out there who's very keen that we stay together," the Doctor surmised. He tilted his head slightly as he paused and seemed to consider her for a moment. "How do you feel on the subject?" he added hesitantly.

Rose tilted her head to mimic his as she grinned up at him and replied, "I think she's probably got the right idea about things."

The Doctor's severe expression instantly melted into another one of his sideways, charming smiles and Rose felt her heart skip a beat within her chest as her own grin quickly widened in response.

Ever since the Doctor had finally allowed them to reestablish their telepathic connection, he had been extremely gentle and hesitant with her. It was almost as though he didn't quite know what he was allowed any more. Rose could feel him on the periphery of her thoughts now, awkwardly hovering as though he were asking permission to enter. She ducked her head to hide her blush as she silently pulled him in deeper, eager to restore the easy back-and-forth that they had shared once before.

While the Doctor maintained his serious, stoic expression, Rose could feel the way that his mind seemed to sigh in relief as he tentatively relaxed into her thoughts. His weight shifted forward slightly on his feet as though he were being pulled in closer to her by some invisible force.

"Personally, I'm a little more concerned about this note from the school." Rose held up the unopened envelope between them in an attempt to focus them back on the matter at hand. "You don't really think they're offering me a teaching position, do you?"

"Well, it seems that you _are_ a teacher, Miss. Oswald," the Doctor replied, staring down at the envelope with a strange look of apprehension on his features. "Coal Hill School ... I'm sure I've heard that name before ..." he muttered quietly under his breath.

"But ... I'm _not_ a teacher," Rose reminded him pointedly. "So, what's this all about? Do you think it's the Bad Wolf again?"

"Could be," the Doctor muttered noncommittally.

"And ... what if it isn't? Who could possibly have the power and ability to set all of this up?"

The Doctor stared at her for a long moment from under those fearsome, furrowed brows of his. Rose wondered, not for the first time, what it was that he seemed to be looking for so intently.

"Who would possibly have the _desire_ to set all of this up?" he added in that growling, Scottish accent that Rose knew he was enjoying far more than he would ever admit. "Who - or _what_ \- is out there, trying to pull us together?"

"But hasn't it always been this way, though?" Rose asked hopefully, attempting to keep a positive attitude in the face of the Doctor's sour expression. "You and me - we're always being pulled together in one way or another. What if it's fate?"

The Doctor flashed her a small, rueful smile that she preferred far less than the wide, boyish grin that she knew he was capable of. Still, it was better than the helpless scowl that he had been wearing ever since they had broached the subject.

"Been wandering about for over two-thousand years now, me," he reminded her gently. "I like to think that I know fate pretty well. She's never exactly been ... _kind_ to me. In fact, I'd say that we share a bit of a strained relationship ..."

Rose flashed the Doctor a fond, teasing smile as she stepped forward and joined him at his side. If he were still his old self ( _any_ of his past reincarnations, really), she would have linked her arm with his and leaned her head against his shoulder in easy familiarity. However, with the awkward tension of regeneration still settling around them, Rose didn't exactly want to test her luck. This new body of his didn't seem to be as fond of physical affection as his past selves had been, and Rose found herself struggling to grapple with this strange new shift in their relationship.

From the very first moment that she had met the Doctor in that dark basement underneath the old Henrik's store, they had been traversing the universe hand-in-hand with very little respect for personal space or modesty between them. Rose was quite happy to continue that trend into eternity, but she wasn't about to force the Doctor outside of his comfort zone - especially when he still seemed to be settling into this new body and all of its strange routines and habits.

The Doctor seemed to pick up on Rose's restless shifting at his side, and she was quite pleased when he slowly reached for her nearest hand and let his fingers slide against her own, linking them together as easily as they always did, no matter what bodies they both happened to be in.

"So ... what now?" Rose asked tentatively as she gently let her fingers twine with his. "First trip out with the new face, where do you want to go?"

The Doctor flashed her a pensive, serious expression that Rose couldn't quite decipher. "Aren't you ... _tired_?" he asked hesitantly.

Rose screwed up her brows at him in confusion as she asked, "What do you mean?" It was a question that she had not been expecting, and she wasn't exactly sure what had prompted it.

"I mean ... I know how you humans like your sleep, and it's been about six hours since I picked you up from Vastra's house. Judging by the time of day when the TARDIS landed, that would put you at about eighteen hours with no sleep, give or take. So ... aren't you tired?"

"I guess I hand't really thought about it ..." Rose's expression fell further as she thought back and suddenly realized that the Doctor was right. After everything that had happened, she had quite lost track of time and her sleep schedule (or lack thereof). But going off of what little rest she had managed to grab back in nineteenth-century London, this would normally be the point in their adventures when she would be yawning and begging the Doctor to take them into the vortex for a break so that she could recuperate.

However, Rose found that she could spare very little thought for such things as she suddenly realized how touched she was by the Doctor's concern. She knew that he had a great many other things to deal with and think about that were far more important than her sleep schedule. In fact, she was surprised by the fact that he had been the one to notice and mention the fact at all. In the past, it had always fallen to Rose to remind the Doctor when a break or rest was needed, never the other way around.

"I feel fine, though," she assured him. She shrugged her shoulders disinterestedly as she glanced from the unopened envelope in her hand, to the TARDIS doors, and back again. Right now, Rose was far more interested in a new adventure or mystery, whichever the Doctor chose to tackle first. She didn't know why she wasn't feeling the long hours more acutely than she was, but in that moment, she didn't exactly care.

When Rose glanced back up at the Doctor, she made sure to flash him an eager grin as she pulled against his thoughts, urging him to set aside his worry and trust her assertion that she was fine for the time being.

 _You really should get some sleep ..._ His words were half-hearted at best, as he was already sighing and moving away from her so that he could round the console controls and pull the lever that would send them back into flight once more.

Rose immediately responded with a mental image of the two of them cuddled up back in their old bed together and projected an air of wistfulness into his thoughts. "I will, don't worry," she replied teasingly. "But first, let's visit this Coal Hill School. I'm interested to look into Ms. Oswald's day-job."


	7. Chapter Seven

Rose knew immediately that she had been traveling for too long with the Doctor when the sheer _normalcy_ of Coal Hill School instantly began to grate against her nerves.

However, the headteacher who greeted her (Mr. Armitage, as he introduced himself) seemed very excited by her list of references and the extensive CV, which had somehow been sent to him without Rose's knowledge. It was filled with experience that Rose herself had never actually completed, but seemed very impressive and convincing. The entire interview process felt extremely forced, and Rose found that she had to fight to remember how normal people spoke to one another and lived out their day-to-day lives as she attempted to pretend to be an average, twenty-first-century mid-twenty-year-old school teacher.

The whole situation made Rose nervous, and she found that she was unconsciously bracing herself at every corner. It was as though she were waiting for whoever it was who was pulling the strings on this odd operation to suddenly reveal themselves and explain why they had designed for her to be a _teacher_ , of all things.

Still, if she was really going to go through with this whole plan as the Doctor seemed to think that she should, she was at least pleased to find that Ms. Clara Oswald appeared to be an English teacher - the one subject that Rose felt that she had a relatively firm grasp on.

About half-way through her tour of the new school, Mr. Armitage was leading Rose through the mingling adults in the staff room when he suddenly pulled her up short next to a tall, young stranger. "Ah! Here he is!" he announced brightly. "Clara, I want to introduce you to Danny Pink. He's new, just like you - teaches maths. Danny? Clara Oswald."

The young man next to him suddenly turned and Rose smiled in warm welcome as she took in his soft brown eyes and kind smile. He was tall, just like the Doctor, but he seemed to be more solidly built and had dark skin and a closely-shaved beard. All in all, Rose had to admit that he was quite handsome, and she didn't doubt Mr. Armitage in the least as he teasingly accused the young man of being a "lady-killer".

"I am _not_ a 'lady-killer'," Danny insisted with a somewhat-strained smile.

"Don't worry, I've met plenty of those before," Rose assured them both with a playful smirk. "I think I'll be able to handle myself."

"Why don't you show Ms. Oswald around a little and help her to get better acquainted with the school, Danny?" Mr. Armitage suggested. "I figured that since you're so new yourself, you two might get on well enough."

"I don't know if I ..." Danny attempted to protest, but he was quickly cut off as the headteacher completely ignored him and turned back to Rose once more instead.

"Right, then - I'll be off," he stated as he took up Rose's hand in his and gave it a firm shake. "Please let us know if there's anything at all that we can do for you, Ms. Oswald. I so look forward to hearing from you. You know how to contact me - we'd be happy to have you whenever you're willing to start!"

The older man bustled off before Rose or Danny could get another word in edgewise. When the two of them met eyes again, the young man flashed her a small, apologetic smile. "So ... what subject will you be teaching?" Danny asked slowly in an attempt to break the awkward silence that had fallen between them.

"English," Rose replied easily. "If I decide to take the offer, that is. And you teach maths, right?" She smirked as she lowered her voice, leaned in conspiratorially, and added, "Never been too good at the subject, myself. I have a friend who normally insists on doing all of the science and maths."

"A friend?" Danny repeated curiously as he led her out of the staff room. He held the door open for her politely as he gestured down the hallway in the direction of whatever sort of tour he planned to take her on.

"Yep - a _friend_ ," Rose agreed, her smile turning cryptic as she patiently allowed him to lead the way further down the hallway. She wasn't about to divulge any more information about the Doctor than was strictly necessary - not to any of this lot, anyway. She still didn't even rightfully know what was going on in this strange school or why she had been so purposefully summoned here. She decided that it would probably be best to keep information about her bondmate and their unusual life together a secret for now - at least until she knew more about who could be trusted or not.

"So ... how long have you been working here, then?" Rose asked curiously, eager to learn a little bit more about the history of the place and the teachers who worked here.

"Just a few months, really," Danny replied with another small shrug. "I was in the army, before. It's been a while since I've gotten to teach. I'm looking forward to a bit of ..."

"Normalcy ...?" Rose supplied helpfully. The young man's words trailed off and his brows began to furrow over his dark eyes in a clouded expression that she knew only too well from spending so much time with the Doctor.

"Yeah," Danny agreed, flashing her a small, shy smile. "Normalcy ..."

"Well, doesn't get much more 'normal' than this ..." Rose continued conversationally as she glanced around the mundane, nondescript school hallways. "I can't remember the last time I was in a school like this. Brings back a lot of memories ..." Not all of them memories that she could necessarily talk about, either - as images of bat-like krillitanes suddenly flashed through her mind.

"So this is your first teaching position, then?" Danny asked, instantly bringing her back to the present and the many strange occurrences that had led her to Coal Hill School.

"I ... suppose you could say that," Rose replied awkwardly, unsure of how to answer such a question when "Clara's" history was still largely unknown to her.

"It's not as hard as it looks," Danny assured her breezily.

"No ...?" Rose asked, flashing him a doubtful look out of the corner of her eye. She may not be a teacher, but she could still remember what she, herself, had been like when she was a teenager oh-so-long ago. She couldn't imagine that times had changed _that_ much in the British schooling system.

"Alright, there are _some_ things that can be pretty difficult," Danny admitted with a small sigh. His eyes grew distant for a moment as he seemed to consider the specific " _difficult_ " students who he was attempting not to name out loud, but when he turned back to Rose, he was smiling again as he added, "But it can be fun, too. The other teachers here are all pretty supportive. In fact, there's a party tonight that they're doing - it's sort of a 'going-away' thing for one of the other teachers that a couple people are putting on. I wasn't going to go, it's just a small, casual get-together, but ... I don't know, maybe you would want to ...?"

His boyish nervousness brought a small smile to Rose's lips despite herself. Watching him struggle for words just seemed to add to the strange, pervasive _normalcy_ that appeared to permeate this place and time. She was struck by how it all combined to make her feel like such an outsider. These day-to-day human tasks and trials just weren't something that she usually did - not anymore, not in a very long time. It was strange to her that she no longer seemed to fit into her own planet and time period when she had an alien husband and a time ship that were both waiting to whisk her away at a moment's notice.

"Sorry, but I think I already have plans," Rose admitted with a small, sympathetic smile. She didn't miss Danny's disappointed exhale as she added, "You should still go, though. It sounds like it's going to be a good time. And since you're such a ... ' _lady-killer_ ', I'm sure you won't be shy of company."

"I'm _not_ ..." Danny insisted exasperatedly.

"Yeah, okay, sure," Rose dismissed him teasingly. She recognized the front doors as they approached them and quickly decided to put an end to their tour of the school as she broke off from Danny and prepared to leave. She figured that she had gotten about as much information from this place as she could for the time being - which wasn't much, if she were being honest - and she was ready to return to the Doctor and their own, unique version of _normal_.

"Seriously, though. You should go," Rose insisted encouragingly as she turned to flash the kind young man one last parting smile. "Go and have a drink on me."

"What about some other time?" Danny asked, the question surprising them both as it seemed to fall from his lips without warning. "You and me, we could go get a drink together ... Nothing fancy, just a casual ..."

"Date ...?" Rose finished for him once more as he seemed to continue to struggle to find the right words. "Sorry, but I don't think so," she replied with another teasing smile. "I wouldn't want to make anyone jealous. Can't have rivalries springing up on my first day."

Danny rolled his eyes at her, but his smile remained hopeful as he watched Rose disappear through the school's front doors. Rose didn't even have the chance to begin to consider how she was going to deal with that dangerous, lingering look before she practically ran headlong into the Doctor. it appeared that he had been waiting for her directly outside of the front doors and was standing there as unmoving as a statue while Rose jumped and stuttered to a stop before colliding bodily with him.

"Sorry ...!" she gasped in shock before realizing who exactly it was who was standing before her. "Oh, it's you," she murmured cheerily. "Have you been waiting long?"

"Yes," the Doctor replied plainly. His expression was very near a scowl as he stared down at her in silence for a moment before turning on his heel and adding, "You were taking too long, so I've been knocking about the future a bit. Found a dalek and a space hospital, thought I might need a second opinion for the job, so I popped back to pick you up."

Rose followed him dutifully back to the TARDIS as he ranted, her breath hitching on the easy way that he spoke of the daleks. His calm veneer didn't fool her in the least as she felt out the jittery uneasiness of his thoughts.

"Why were you smiling, by the way?" he asked as he pushed through the TARDIS doors. Rose couldn't help but notice that he didn't bother to pause and hold them open for her the way that Danny had.

"Was I?" Rose asked in startled confusion. "No, I wasn't ..."

"You were smiling at nothing," the Doctor insisted over his shoulder as he continued to move towards the console controls and didn't bother sparing her a second look. "I'd almost say you were in love, but to be honest ..."

"'Honest'?" Rose leveled a dubious look in his direction that he completely ignored as he circled the central space before her.

"You're not a young woman anymore," he finished, flashing her an irritated look that Rose didn't feel was entirely deserved.

"Are we seriously going to start comparing ages, now?" she demanded, her tone growing slightly acidic as she raised her chin in stubborn defiance of his glare.

"Just don't want you going out and bringing home _strays_ ," the Doctor grumbled under his breath as he returned his hard expression to the console controls before him.

"What, like you do?" Rose snapped in irritation. When he failed to come up with a retort to that, she crossed her arms over her chest and squared her shoulders in his direction. "Do you really think I would do that? Do you have so little faith in me?" she demanded heatedly. 

Realization dawned on her in waves and Rose's glare instantly melted into shocked surprise as she tentatively prodded against the edges of the Doctor's thoughts and added, "Wait ... are you _jealous_ right now?"

" _Jealous_?" the Doctor scoffed as he finally turned to look at her properly once more. "Me? Don't be silly ..."

However, there was no denying the way that he was quickly hoarding his thoughts away from her once more, clearly eager to keep his inner insecurities to himself.

"I can't believe this ... You're actually _jealous_ , aren't you?" A disbelieving look crossed Rose's features as she fought to determine whether she was more annoyed or pleased by this new information. She shared a lifelong _telepathic bond_ with the man, for heaven's sake. He clearly didn't ever have to worry about her running off with another man. But the fact that he was so concerned about keeping her to himself still filled her with hope that maybe he would finally stop trying to abandon her at every turn.

"Rose, I am a two-thousand-year-old alien from space, I don't do 'jealous'," the Doctor snapped stubbornly.

"Could have fooled me with those big, sad eyes and the grumpy old frown," she teased. She couldn't help the fact that her tone came out a bit sharper than she intended as she continued to war between amusement and annoyance.

The Doctor braced his hands against the console before him as he glared at her from under his thick, heavy brows and allowed a moment of silence to fall between them. As his keen eyes watched her, she could feel his presence in the back of her mind, still hesitantly feeling her out as though he weren't exactly sure how to communicate with her anymore.

"Rose, I need something from you," he muttered darkly as he carefully regarded her. "I need the truth."

"Okay ..." she agreed slowly, her hands falling to her sides as her thoughts immediately softened. He didn't have to ask twice before she was ready to accept whatever it was that he would ask of her. She didn't plan on letting the Doctor get away with treating her with so little faith and trust, but the intensity in his expression and the desperation in his tone immediately called out to her and silenced all else for the time being.

She tilted her head at him in wonder as she realized suddenly, "You're scared ..."

"I'm terrified," he agreed with a small, rueful sigh.

"Of what?" Rose asked cautiously.

"The answer to my next question, which must be honest, cold, and considered - without kindness or restraint." He dropped his gaze from hers for a moment as he took a deep breath and continued, "Tell me: am I a good man?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it obvious that I know nothing at all about the British schooling system?? (Why did Clara have to go and get a day-job? >.<) Hopefully there's nothing too off-base in here, and if there is, you'll just have to excuse this public-school-taught American.


	8. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We've finally reached a fluffy chapter! The first of many, hopefully - I have a lot of Twelfth Doctor feelings. <3 <3

"Tell me: am I a good man?"

Rose didn't quite know how to answer such a loaded question coming from a man who, for all intents and purposes, was still settling back into his own mind and personality. Unable to find the right words in the moment to respond with, she settled for filling the Doctor's thoughts with as much silent reassurance as possible, and waited to give him a solid answer until after they had gone into both the heart and mind of a broken dalek and stopped the thing from killing everyone on board the futuristic space hospital that the Doctor had stumbled onto.

She made him wait until after she had showered, too. Being in the literal belly of the beast was an experience that Rose hoped never to repeat again as the smell of the dalek's gastrointestinal system seemed to have permanently affixed itself to her clothes and hair.

When she finally reemerged into their shared bedroom once more and began the task of hunting down a set of clean clothes, Rose gently reached out over their shared telepathic bond and quietly sensed out the Doctor's mind. She could tell by the pattern of his grim thoughts that he had been brooding the entire time that she had been cleaning herself up, and she was eager to pull him from _that_ particular train of thought before he managed to get too lost in it.

She beckoned him wordlessly, and she tried not to be too surprised when he followed her command without complaint. She was glad to see that, even though he continued to refuse to completely open up to her, he seemed to be willing to share this easy conversation between minds.

Rose was fully dressed again and toweling her hair dry when his tall frame finally filled the doorway before her. His expression was just as dark and severe-looking as always, but Rose was surprised to find that the furrowed brows were beginning to grow on her. She flashed him a small, fond smile as she silently tugged against their connection once more and ushered him further into the room.

"I think I finally managed to get rid of the smell," she informed him lightly as she tossed her damp towel into the nearby hamper and let her wet hair fall down loose around her shoulders, "though I think the clothes were largely unsalvageable."

"That's a shame," the Doctor replied as he continued to watch her with an intent focus that Rose was beginning to realize might be yet another strange new trend with this body.

"Oh?" Rose prompted him curiously, raising her eyebrows in his direction as she waited for a deeper explanation.

"Isn't it? I don't know. They all look the same to me," he sighed as he finally crossed the threshold and stepped fully into the room. However, he still hesitated near the doorway, not seeming to know where it was appropriate to position himself in the small space that they had once shared.

"Doctor ..." Rose murmured quietly, "you asked me before if you were a good man."

She watched as the considering scowl on his face slowly melted into quiet surprise. He clearly hadn't expected her to return to the subject again, and he didn't have anything to say in response. He simply watched her silently as she continued, "I don't even know if there _is_ such a thing as a 'good man'. People are just people, no matter who they are or what they do. But, I think you try to be, and ... I think that's probably the point."

Rose bit her lip in nervous anticipation as she watched the Doctor's blue eyes grow warm and gentle in a way that she hadn't yet seen on this new face of his before. He opened his mouth slowly, but it seemed to take him a moment to get the words out as he glanced nervously down at his hands. "I ... made something for you," he muttered quietly.

"You what?" Rose tilted her head at the Doctor in curiosity as he fidgeted awkwardly before her.

The Doctor who she had married on her parallel world was always making her things during their life together - partly out of a necessity to stay busy and train his hands to productive work, and partly as a display of love and affection. However, Rose had had to leave all of those treasured memories and trinkets behind when she had come back to this universe, and the Doctor that she had married here - _this man's_ previous self - had never exactly had a spare moment to craft very much during their many wild adventures.

"I made it a long time ago," the Doctor continued, still studiously avoiding her gaze as he stared down hard at his own hands. Rose realized belatedly that he was holding something within them, rolling the small object between his fingers as though testing the shape and size of it. "I just ... never had the chance ..."

 _Show me,_ Rose encouraged him gently, taking another step forward and silently beckoning him further into the room once more. Her mental urging seemed to finally draw his gaze back to her, and she could practically feel his blue eyes as a physical touch as the Doctor stared down hard at her openly-curious expression.

"You don't _have_ to take it, of course. Not if you don't want to," he muttered awkwardly. "It's really nothing special. I could make a better one, if you wanted. And it's not like it really means anything - not really - but, I just ... thought you might want it."

"Doctor, what is it?" Rose smiled up at him before she took another step closer and glanced down to the gift that he was concealing in his hands. There, she was just able to make out the band of a small, silver ring glinting in the light as it passed through his slowly twiddling fingers.

Rose gasped aloud as realization dawned on her, but the sudden, sharp noise seemed to freeze the Doctor in place as he instantly became one long line of nervous tension.

"It really is nothing, just something the old me put together one night when I was bored ..." The Doctor's voice was low and dismissive as he tentatively held the small ring up for her approval. There was a large, clear, turquoise-colored gem in the center of it, surrounded by clusters of smaller white gems that twinkled like stars. It was very different from the ring that Rose's husband had made her back when they were living in their parallel world together, but it was no less beautiful and significant. She still wore the old brass ring that she had awoken in this body with on a chain around her neck at all times - a ring that was not her husband's, but still symbolized her love and loyalty to him even now after so much time and distance apart.

"Oh, Doctor ..." Rose sighed in breathless wonder. "It's _beautiful_ ..."

"He would want you to have it," the Doctor told her gently. He forced himself to meet her eyes as he added under his breath, " _I_ would like you to have it. If you want it."

Rose flashed him a wide, ecstatic grin as she instantly filled his mind with _yes, yes, yes!_ and tentatively reached for the small, priceless gift.

The Doctor hesitated for a moment before taking Rose's left hand in his own and sliding the delicate ring onto her third finger himself. Rose could sense that there was some great, complicated emotion sitting just behind the mental barrier that he still insisted on keeping between them, but she didn't prod him to share as she tore her gaze away from the gorgeous silver band and glanced up to catch his eye. She was still smiling like a fool as she silently filled his thoughts with all of her overwhelming joy and happiness and he rewarded her with that soft, crooked smile that she loved best as he gazed down at her in return.

"I hope you're not expecting me to make you something in return ..." Rose murmured with a small, self-deprecating shrug. "I'm rubbish with jewelry."

The Doctor breathed out a small huff of laughter through his nose as he slowly shook his head and raised his own left hand for her to see. "Already made something for myself, thanks."

"You're ... going to wear a _ring_?" Rose eyed the gold band with the pale green stone that was currently resting around the Doctor's third finger. Her husband back in their parallel world had _had_ a wedding ring, of course - but he only ever wore it whenever he could be bothered to remember where he had left it, and Rose couldn't for the life of her imagine her Doctor in this world being much different.

"'Course I am," the Doctor replied indignantly. He seemed to hesitate for a moment before he silently added, _Is ... that alright?_

Rose had to fight very hard to respect the Doctor's wishes and maintain his small bubble of personal space as she felt the tingling sensation of his doubt and insecurities suddenly creeping into the back of her mind. The daft old idiot was still so unsure of her - unsure if she still cared for him the way that she used to, the way that she had sworn to _always_ do - and she wanted nothing more in that moment than to throw her arms around his neck and prove to him once and for all that he was an absolute, ridiculous _dolt_.

She realized, suddenly, that he had given her the silver and turquoise ring as a memento of his old self - a vow of love and fidelity that he thought that she rightfully deserved. It was a gift from the man before him who had already come and gone, and of promises past. But he had made the gold and green ring as a gift from his current self, and a promise for their future. This ring symbolized an offer - an open invitation that he was completely and totally _hers_ , if only she cared to claim him.

Rose reached forward and took his left hand in hers without hesitation, bringing the small gold ring up to her eye-level so that she could carefully inspect it. The single gem adorning it was a perfect circle that glittered different shades of jade and lime in the dim light that surrounded them. She didn't think that it was what she would have necessarily chosen for him, but it was certainly unique, and obviously eye-catching, which was a trait that she very much appreciated.

Rose made sure to meet the Doctor's gaze head-on as she slowly bent her lips to the green gemstone and pressed a lingering, deliberate kiss to its small surface. She could sense that the Doctor was holding his breath as he watched her, the glint in his new blue eyes making her heart flare with desire as she eagerly accepted his offer to display their relationship openly to anyone who cared to look.

She made sure that the Doctor felt the fire behind her deeply possessive thoughts as she muttered teasingly, _Now I_ know _your'e getting old - you're going soft, Doctor._

The Doctor's lips immediately turned up into a small smirk, which when paired with the look of his dark, blown pupils made Rose's heart stutter and skip a beat. _Promise not to tell anyone?_ he teased gently in return. He took her left hand in his and brought it to his lips to repeat her small gesture of fondness.

"You make an honest man out of me, Rose Tyler," he muttered aloud, his mouth moving against the sensitive skin of her knuckles as he spoke. "That can be a _very_ dangerous thing."

The Doctor's smirk only continued to grow as he quickly realized that the low tone of his voice and the way that he now rolled his "R's" was making her shiver uncontrollably.

"The world doesn't end because the Doctor dances," Rose reminded him with a dreamy, dazed smile. "It won't end just because he's _married_ , either."

"Been married loads of times, me," the Doctor reminded her dismissively. _Never had_ this, _though_ , he continued as he silently embraced their telepathic bond. He didn't have to give words to the rest of the thoughts and emotions that he couldn't quite bring himself to admit, because Rose felt them just as vividly as she felt her own: _Never had_ you, _never had_ connection, _never had_ love.

"Me, too," Rose whispered as she stared up at him and slowly lost herself in those soft blue eyes of his. She absolutely adored this gentle, quiet look that he was sharing with her because she knew that it was _hers_ \- something that the Doctor (and this face, in particular) would never share with anyone else. It was something that only _she_ would ever get to see.

Rose silently mused over the many faces of the Doctor that she had loved over the years as she slowly let her gaze trail over the new features of the man before her. Her first Doctor had loved her in a shy, unsure way - his broken hearts making him both desperate and defensive as she taught him how to heal. Her second Doctor had loved her with casual affection - their shared confidence in their relationship making them reckless enough to test fate itself (a failed endeavor that reminded them both that they were not, in fact, invincible). Her third Doctor had loved her with wild abandon - the loneliness of being separated and the weight of his many mistakes making him needy and desperate for connection as he eagerly welcomed her back into his life and his mind again.

 _This_ Doctor, however - he loved her with a quiet pride. He wore his ring (something that Rose would have _never_ imagined the Doctor doing) as a badge of honor - a stoic promise to serve and protect; a silent vow of eternal devotion. He kept the rest of the world at arm's length, but he allowed her to see the things that he would never admit to anyone else, maybe even to himself.

 _And you accuse_ me _of being old and sentimental,_ the Doctor mused dryly. The soft look still remained in his pale blue eyes as he watched her silently pondering him.

 _Just appreciating the view, dear,_ Rose replied teasingly. She reached up and pressed a kiss to his cheek before he could startle away or force any more barriers between them. However, she was both surprised and pleased when the Doctor simply flashed her another one of his charming, lopsided smiles and pulled against her hand, urging her out into the hallway and back towards the console room.

"So ... where to next?" he called back eagerly over his shoulder to her. "Your choice - wherever, whenever ... anywhere in time and space."

Rose grinned wildly at the back of the Doctor's head as her mind immediately began racing ahead of her to the many possibilities that lay before them. She knew _exactly_ where she wanted to go next, of course - she would just have to work on convincing the Doctor to hear her out ...


	9. Chapter Nine

"You'll only be disappointed ..." the Doctor warned Rose ominously as he begrudgingly set the TARDIS destinations and flipped the dematerialization lever to send them hurtling towards medieval England. " _Robin Hood_ is made up. There's no such thing."

"Surely you can't _know_ that, Doctor." Rose flashed him a wide grin as she twirled happily around the console. Despite all of his protestations, she was getting her way and she knew it.

"Old fashioned heroes only exist in old fashioned story books, Rose," he reminded her pointedly. Rose wondered if he knew that this new glaring face of his really had no effect at all when she could see right through his irritated facade.

"Oh, really?" Rose asked lightly as she circled back around the console to join him at his side once more. "Is _that_ why you're mentioned in so many old books, then?" She poked his arm teasingly as she grinned up at his softening expression and added, "Really, though, Doctor - you'd tell me if you were Robin Hood, wouldn't you? Because, honestly, there have been a few times when I've wondered ..."

"The heroic outlaw who robs from the rich and gives to the poor?" he muttered dubiously, raising a brow in her direction. "What makes you think that _that_ could possibly be _me_?"

"I don't believe this ..." Rose muttered, sighing and rolling her eyes at him with a long-suffering look. "You really _are_ , aren't you? _You're_ Robin Hood ..."

The Doctor smirked up at the glowing time rotor as the TARDIS came to a rocking halt around them. He didn't bother to properly answer her question, but Rose was used to his cagey moods, no matter what face he was wearing. As soon as they were fully stationary once more, he flashed her a teasing, challenging look as he replied cryptically, "Well, let's go and find out, shall we?"

\--------------------

It turned out that the Doctor was _not_ , in fact, the fabled prince of thieves - but the old hero from legend _did_ turn out to be completely and totally real (much to Rose's amusement and the Doctor's chagrin).

Rose didn't miss the way that her bondmate's eyes seemed to drift towards her left hand at every idle moment as they were introduced to first Robin and then his band of merry men. Though the ring that she now wore was a clear and obvious display that she was taken and not all interested in any other young, attractive men's advances, the Doctor seemed to need some sort of constant reassurance that she wasn't concocting any ideas to leave him for some medieval rogue living out in the woods and evading the law.

Every time that she caught him glaring at her ring, Rose would chidingly pull against the Doctor's thoughts and he would flash her an exasperated, indignant look as though _she_ were the one who was being absolutely ridiculous.

 _Is it going to be this way all of the time, now?_ Rose asked silently as the Doctor once again stepped firmly between her and Robin Hood, making it clear that he expected a respectable amount of space to remain between Rose and every other man at all times.

 _Don't know what you mean,_ the Doctor insisted petulantly.

 _Don't think I've ever seen you so ..._ possessive, Rose mused as she thought back over all of the previous faces of the Doctor that she had traveled with in the past. Her first Doctor was the only other one who really came close - though back then when Rose had been a young, single teenager, he had had a certain reasonable right to worry about her running off with another man. Now, when she was over a hundred-years-old and _married_ to him, the petty jealousies fell a bit flat.

It wasn't until Rose was standing before one of the Sheriff of Nottingham's robot guards with Robin Hood's arms braced tightly around her middle that she began to think that maybe the Doctor's distrust of the man might not have been so misplaced after all. As he pulled her backwards with him through the window and into the open air beyond, she could feel her stab of fear combine with the Doctor's and send a shot of adrenaline flowing through her veins. They fell for what felt like miles before Rose felt the cold shock of water engulf her body as they disappeared beneath the dark waters of the castle moat below.

 _Rose!_ The Doctor's mind reached out for her desperately and nearly made her choke on a mouthful of water as she struggled to handle his panic as well as her own while she fought to find the surface once more.

"Yeah, sorry about the girl, such a pretty thing," Rose could hear the sheriff muttering bemusedly to the Doctor somewhere high up above. "What a queen she would have made ..."

"Oh, she's _far_ more than that," the Doctor snarled in reply. He was scanning the water below and didn't stop his frantic searching until Rose finally broke through the surface and heaved in a fresh lungful of air.

The Doctor's sharp relief echoed her own as Rose spluttered and then quickly began swimming back in the direction of land once more. _Stay safe,_ the Doctor commanded desperately. _Wait for me._

 _Ditto,_ Rose replied dryly.

\--------------------

"So ... are you going to say it, or shall I?"

They had finally stepped back on board the TARDIS and were preparing to leave the Earl of Locksley and twelfth-century England behind them.

"Say what?" the Doctor grumbled under his breath as he dutifully avoided her eye.

"That I was right and you were wrong." Rose crossed her arms over the floor-length red dress that she still wore as she gazed down her nose at the Doctor with a lofty expression. " _And_ that you like him. Go on - admit it. Even _you_ fell for Robin Hood's roguish charm in the end."

"I don't know if I would go _that_ far," the Doctor insisted, though Rose was sure that she caught the hint of a smile playing at his lips as he piloted them safely back into the vortex. "I'm glad that you had a good time, though," he continued conversationally as he focused on the controls at his fingertips instead of meeting her gaze. "Big day - meeting your childhood hero and saving the town and all of that. Surely _now_ you're tired?"

Rose rolled her eyes at his fussing, but she didn't bother arguing with him. She suddenly realized that she _was_ tired. It had been over sixty hours now since she had last had a full night's sleep, with only a few restless power naps and bits of dazed unconsciousness thrown in during the time in between. She honestly wasn't sure how she was still standing and carrying on a normal conversation (well, as normal as any conversation with the _Doctor_ could be).

"'S'pose it wouldn't hurt to take the rest of the night off," Rose admitted, staring down the long hallway behind her with a look of wary apprehension. When she didn't deign to continue, the Doctor gently pulled at her thoughts, silently questioning her sudden morose mood. When she turned back to meet his eyes, she could see that he was watching her attentively, his brows drawn and serious over blue eyes that were too soft and immediately betrayed his concern.

"Will you ... come with me?" Rose finally asked, forcing herself to make the request despite her fears that she would be shot down and pushed away yet again. Before the Doctor had regenerated, the two of them had merged their living quarters on the TARDIS, making one room and one bed their own. Rose realized suddenly that she had grown accustomed to his familiar presence cuddled up near her whenever she slept, and she wasn't entirely sure if she would be able to sleep without him, now. However, they hadn't broached that particular topic of discussion since he had changed his face and suddenly put so many barriers and limitations on their relationship. Rose found that she was nervous but eager to know his thoughts on the matter now.

The Doctor stared at her for a long moment in silent surprise before he finally replied, "Are you ... sure that's what you want?"

Rose didn't let his hesitant question go unanswered for a moment longer than was strictly necessary as she eagerly nodded her head in assent and held out her hand to him invitingly. She tentatively pulled against his thoughts as she silently begged for him to give in and finally just _be_ with her again.

The Doctor was looking at her hand as though he were afraid that it might reach up and bite him as he slowly circled the console and hesitantly joined her at her side. However, when his fingers did finally twine through hers, his grip was firm and confident - as though he were afraid that she might fade away and disappear if he didn't hold on tight enough.

Rose simply squeezed his fingers in return and offered him a small smile as she turned without another word and led him down the hallway towards their shared quarters.

Their bedroom was just as she had left it - neat and in order without the Doctor around to throw clothes and shoes and other strange objects throughout the entirety of the room. Rose gave his hand one last reassuring squeeze before she let go of his fingers and began to work on the period costume that the TARDIS had gifted her upon their arrival in twelfth-century England. The heels and jewelry were all discarded easily enough and returned to their rightful places, but the long, red dress was another issue entirely. It was held together by a single row of laces that ran down the front that had taken her ages to get tied up on her own earlier while the Doctor had waited for her outside.

Rose sighed wearily as she reached for the bow that was knotted just over her breast and began to pick it loose - silently preparing herself for another long, awkward struggle. She paused when she suddenly noticed that the Doctor was watching her intently again.

"You're not getting into bed with those boots on," she reminded him, nodding pointedly towards his feet and disrupting him from whatever thoughts he was still steadfastly hiding behind his mental barriers. She carefully resumed the long process of steadily loosening the strings down her front. "And you'll probably be more comfortable without the coat, too."

The Doctor flashed her a sharply annoyed look. He stubbornly held her gaze as he began to slowly unbutton his new red-lined coat. Rose raised her eyebrow at him in response as she eagerly accepted his silent challenge and refused to break eye-contact first while she continued to work at the long line of laces down her front.

Once the Doctor had shrugged out of his jacket, he moved to his boots next, sliding them off and leaving them in an untidy pile on the floor, his eyes never once leaving hers.

Once the front of Rose's dress had been loosened far enough, she peeled her arms free from the tight red sleeves and let the entire thing fall to the floor and pool around her feet. Rose fought to maintain a straight face as she noticed the small smile hinting at the edge of the Doctor's lips. He continued to steadily meet her eyes, not allowing his gaze to fall anywhere else as she stepped purposefully towards their shared bed in nothing but her knickers and bent to pull back the neatly-made sheets.

It was Rose who finally ended up conceding the game of prolonged eye-contact when she slipped under the covers of the bed and turned her back to him. She held her breath in anticipation as she waited for the Doctor to join her. She could feel his hesitation as he hovered awkwardly near the opposite edge of the bed, his gaze on her the entire time as he undid the top few buttons of his dark maroon shirt and then loosened both of the buttons around his wrists.

 _Please, Doctor ..._ Rose silently implored him, projecting her aching longing across their mental bond as she impatiently waited for him to make up his mind.

He finally relented, heaving a great sigh as he did so, as though he were giving in to the demands of a particularly persistent child. When Rose's distinct annoyance flared between them, the Doctor quickly silenced her retort by wrapping one of his arms tightly around her middle and sliding up as close to her as he could get. His long limbs easily cradled her smaller frame as he pulled her close.

He pressed a single, lingering kiss to the back of her bare shoulder, which set Rose's skin on fire and made her hungry for more. However, he silenced her protests by projecting the perfect imitation of sleep directly into her mind as he quietly urged her to be still.

 _Sleep, love,_ he whispered soothingly. _I'm not going anywhere._

The words were more reassuring than Rose could have possibly explained, and they were all the encouragement that she needed to instantly fall into a deep, dreamless slumber.


	10. Chapter Ten

When Rose finally awoke again, the first thing that she felt was the sharp sting of disappointment as she realized that once again, she had been left completely alone. She experienced a brief flash of fear as her mind immediately jumped to the last time that she had fallen asleep in the Doctor's arms, only to wake up to find that he had disappeared into the night by himself.

However, her worries were quickly soothed as her wildly searching mind was instantly met with silent, calming reassurances from her bondmate. The Doctor was still near, and he had maintained his connection with her, though she was still unable to see everything that he kept walled up behind his mental barriers.

"Why do you have three mirrors?"

The question was sudden and blunt and stood in stark contrast to the gentle thoughts that the Doctor was currently projecting into Rose's head. The strange disparity instantly had Rose slowly sitting up in bed in an attempt to better gauge the Doctor's expression. She wasn't sure whether she should be more surprised or amused when she laid eyes on him sitting at her vanity on the other side of the room and scowling at the three-sided mirror there.

"Why don't you just turn your head?" he continued, miming the action for her and not meeting her gaze as Rose stared hard at his reflection over his shoulder.

"Have you just been ... _sitting_ there this whole time?" Rose asked him pointedly. "Blimey, I was out for five hours. Couldn't you have found something more productive to do?"

"I kept myself busy," he assured her dismissively, continuing to turn his head as he seemed to scrutinize his new features. When he finally met her gaze in the mirror's reflection, he added hesitantly, _Thought you wanted me to stay._

Rose flashed him a soft, fond smile in response to his shy thought before she stretched her tense limbs and slowly forced herself out from the warm comfort of the bed. She walked up behind the Doctor still wearing only her knickers and tentatively let her arms snake around his shoulders, waiting for him to jump up and run away at any moment. However, when he did nothing but sit there and stare hard at the flat surface of her vanity, Rose decided to test her luck and pressed a single, lingering kiss to the top of his head. _I always want you to stay,_ she silently reminded him.

"How did you know it was five hours?" the Doctor asked, immediately ruining the mood with yet another blunt question. He reached forward and began to fiddle with the various odds and ends that Rose had left behind on the vanity's surface, as though he was desperate to find something for his hands to do.

"Sorry?" Rose was unable to stop the wandering of her fingers as she traced nonsense patterns against his chest and attempted to meet his gaze in any of the three mirrors before them.

"How did you know that you slept for five hours?" the Doctor repeated, glancing up and meeting her gaze for only a brief moment before he quickly looked away again.

"I ... don't know," Rose replied haltingly, her brows screwing up as she pondered the strange question. "Lucky guess?"

The Doctor made a small noise that might have been a humorless laugh or a disbelieving grunt. Without warning, he jumped to his feet, turned on the spot, and pressed a quick kiss against Rose's left temple. "Get dressed," he instructed as he hurriedly brushed past her and headed for the door. "I need you, for a thing."

"'A thing'?" Rose repeated, turning to watch him with a dubious look on her features.

"Yes, a thing!" he called back over his shoulder as he continued down the hallway without her. _Told you I kept myself busy,_ he added silently after he had moved out of earshot of her. _I think I may have just found something new worth investigating ..._

\--------------------

"It looks like your handwriting ..." Rose muttered as she gazed at the blackboard that the Doctor had dragged her towards as soon as she had dressed and joined him back in the console room. The script that lay before her was a single word - it simply declared, "Listen."

"Well, I couldn't have written it and forgotten, could I?" the Doctor insisted. His gaze was intense once more as he carefully watched her for her reaction.

Rose raised her eyebrow at him in yet another dubious, weighted expression and let a moment of sarcastic silence pass between. "Have you _met_ you?" she asked teasingly.

The Doctor flashed her a surprised, indignant look before he tightened his jaw and flashed her a quick mental image of the two of them in bed, curled up around one another in quiet, blissful peace. _I've been a bit ..._ preoccupied _for the past five hours, if you'll remember,_ he muttered, his thoughts nervous and awkward as he forced himself to meet her gaze. _When would I have had time to come down here and write this?_

He dutifully ignored Rose's blush and moved on before she could have the chance to react to the tantalizing image that he had shown her. "You know sometimes when you talk to yourself?" he asked ominously. "What if you're not?"

"Not what?" Rose blinked hard and forced herself to focus on the task at hand and not the warm, comforting promise of the bed that she had just abandoned.

"What if it's not _you_ you're talking to?" the Doctor insisted, the sparkle in his eyes suddenly making her nervous. "I think it's time for another TARDIS flying lesson." He glanced from Rose to the console controls and back again. "Only this time, it might be a bit more difficult ..."

\--------------------

The first of the many difficulties that the Doctor proceeded to present her with was the story of a creature that spent its entire life hiding. It was something that existed for the sole purpose of scaring people - a creature that would be impossible to find, and even more difficult to track.

The second difficulty presented itself when the Doctor led Rose to a series of glowing indentations on the TARDIS console and gently guided her fingers into the various slots within.

"TARDIS telepathic interface," he explained matter-of-factly, his voice a quiet murmur as he stood behind her and spoke directly into her ear.

"Isn't this a bit redundant?" Rose asked, fighting not to sound as breathless as she felt with her bondmate so close and his hands still hovering over her own. "The TARDIS and I are already pretty close, you know. I've flown her before ..."

"Yes, well, we can't risk messing this one up," the Doctor informed her gravely. He mentally chided her to focus while at the same time tilting his nose none-too-subtly into her hair and distracting them both. "I'm turning off the safeguards and navigation ... slaving the TARDIS to you. You are now in complete mental contact with my ship."

"Right ..." Rose murmured, completely giving up the pretense of not sounding breathless.

"So don't think anything rude." The Doctor's tone was no-nonsense but his thoughts were smug as he slowly let go of her and moved around the console to peer thoughtfully at the TARDIS monitor.

Rose narrowed her eyes on him as she forced herself to focus on the third difficulty that they were currently up against - namely, traveling to her past, when she had been a child living with her mother on the Powell Estates. It had been a lifetime since she had been back to that mundane little flat, and she wasn't exactly eager to visit again. There were simply too many memories - and, if the Doctor's stories were to be believed, the fourth and fifth difficulties of their current objective stood in their way as well.

Not only were they going back on Rose's timeline to find a point where she had come into contact with one of these strange, hidden creatures, but they were also risking intercepting the Doctor's timeline as well, as he haltingly confessed to her that he had visited her childhood more times than he cared to admit during their time apart and that they would need to treat lightly in order to not accidentally cross one of _his_ timelines as well.

However, before they ever even got the chance to see if the Doctor's crazy plan would work, an unexpected and unaccounted for sixth difficulty suddenly reared its head, and Rose's attempt to fly the TARDIS into the late-twentieth century was interrupted by a muffled ringing noise.

"No, no. Don't you dare!" the Doctor growled in frustration. Rose gasped in surprise and opened her eyes to stare in shock at the small cell phone that the Doctor had retrieved from the coat that she had thrown over one of the TARDIS railings. "No, don't! Just ignore it!" he insisted as he tossed the borrowed cell phone rudely across the room.

"But who could it be?" Rose asked. Only one other person that she knew of had that phone's number, and he was currently standing in the room with her, so it wasn't him calling. At least, not this _current_ version of him, anyway ...

The Doctor never got the chance to hazard a guess, however, as the TARDIS suddenly came to a halt around them and he instantly flipped a switch and threw the ship into park again. "Okay ... that's good. That worked!" the Doctor murmured in a tone of pleasant surprise. "We're here!"

Rose gently disentangled her fingers from the TARDIS's telepathic controls and gazed up at the time rotor doubtfully. The Doctor ignored her completely and wasted no more time before skipping eagerly towards the ship's doors.

Before she followed him, Rose paused to retrieve the phone that he had chucked so carelessly across the room and glanced at the device's screen. It informed her that she had a missed call from an unknown number. Her brows furrowed further as her fingers hovered over the phone's buttons and she considered attempting to call the number back.

However, the sound of the TARDIS doors banging shut instantly shocked Rose back into reality, and she slipped her borrowed phone back into her pocket and rushed after the Doctor instead.

She didn't end up making it two steps outside of the ship before the seventh difficulty suddenly greeted them, right on time: it seemed that they had _not_ managed to make it to the Powell Estates after all. In fact, Rose wasn't entirely sure _where_ they were. It looked like Earth, but it was certainly no place that she had ever seen before.

"Any chance you were raised in the West Country Children's Home in Gloucester and forgot to tell me about it?" the Doctor quipped lightly as he glanced curiously around at their dark surroundings.

"Not a chance," Rose replied dryly.

"Well. Seems I'm not the only one with a shoddy driving record, then," he grumbled, flashing her a small, amused smile.

\--------------------

Facing the hidden monster that the Doctor was currently so keen on hunting down was terrifying to say the least, but even stranger than all of that was the young Rupert Pink who greeted them. Despite her close relationship with the TARDIS, Rose suddenly realized that she had very little idea of how the machine actually worked. She began to wonder how in the world it had ever ended up landing them _here_ , of all places - in the bedroom of a younger version of the man who Rose had met at Coal Hill School nearly two decades in the future.

"Am I safe now?" the young boy asked after the strange creature that the Doctor and Rose were hunting had mysteriously departed.

"No one's safe - especially not at night, in the dark ... Anything can get you," the Doctor mused distractedly as he poked through young Rupert's things.

Rose smacked the back of her hand lightly against the Doctor's arm and flashed him a dangerous look as she mentally reminded him that this was a human _child_ who he was talking to.

"What was that for?" the Doctor moaned petulantly anyway. "People don't need to be _lied_ to."

"He doesn't need to be _scared_ , either," Rose reminded him pointedly. She moved towards the bed that the young boy was currently sitting on and softly attempted to reassure him.

"Will you read me a story?" Rupert asked suddenly, his eyes brightening with youthful hope as he gazed up at Rose. "It'll help me get to sleep."

"Sure!" she agreed, but her attempt at kind optimism was quickly cut off as the Doctor suddenly brushed past her and laid a single finger to the young boy's forehead without warning or pretense.

"Once upon a time ..." He watched from under furrowed brows as the boy's eyes instantly rolled back into his head and he immediately collapsed back onto his pillow, unconscious. "The end," the Doctor finished simply.

Rose flashed him an unamused look, but the Doctor simply shrugged and replied, "Dad skills."

"You've ... never done that to _me_ before, have you?" Rose asked, standing up and narrowing her eyes on him suspiciously.

"I just called them 'dad skills', Clara," the Doctor reminded her, still using her fake name despite the fact that they were completely alone in a young child's bedroom. She could tell that this business with the hidden monster under the bed had him ruffled in a way that he hadn't been ruffled in quite some time. The thought that the Doctor was truly and properly _afraid_ suddenly made Rose nervous.

"Do I look old enough to be your dad?" the Doctor continued blithely.

Rose raised a knowing brow in the Doctor's direction, but deigned not to answer as she turned and slowly began heading back towards the TARDIS.

"The bigger question," the Doctor reminded her as he swiftly caught up with her and matched his long-legged strides to her own, "is why did we end up with _him_ and not _you_? You don't have any kind of ... _connection_ with him, do you?"

"Er ... no!" Rose replied awkwardly, not even truly knowing why she was lying to him. Perhaps some small part of her was still holding onto the hope that Rupert Pink was _not_ , in fact, the younger version of the Danny Pink that she had met at Coal Hill. Perhaps she simply didn't want to dig any deeper into the reason behind why the TARDIS seemed to be connecting her to Danny Pink in the first place. Perhaps she simply didn't want to deal with the Doctor's ridiculous jealousy anymore.

Whatever the reason, Rose made herself meet the Doctor's eyes evenly as she solidly reaffirmed, "No. Of course not. Why do you ask?"


	11. Chapter Eleven

Rose really should have known that her thinly-veiled lie would only make the Doctor _more_ curious. She was entirely unable to talk him out of tracing the timeline that the TARDIS seemed to have latched onto and taking them one-hundred years forward into young Rupert Pink's future. She was also no longer able to delude herself into thinking that perhaps Rupert and Danny were two different people, as they immediately stumbled upon Orson Pink - a man who happened to share a startling likeness with the maths teacher who Rose had met at Coal Hill School back in the early-twenty-first century.

However, Orson wasn't the only strange anomaly that Rose and the Doctor discovered lurking at the end of the universe. Rose soon discovered that the monsters who hid in the dark underneath peoples' beds seemed to be a reoccurring theme in the Pink family line.

"Why are we doing this? Why don't we just _go_?" Rose asked as she and the Doctor impatiently waited for dusk to fall on the end of the universe. He was eager to finally have the opportunity to come face-to-face with one of the hidden creatures.

"Because _I need to know_ ," the Doctor insisted stubbornly.

" _Why_? About _what_?" Rose demanded, leveling a glare on him that was intense enough to rival his own.

The Doctor turned to face her and opened his mouth as though he were going to reply. However, as soon as his gaze fell fully on her, his expression fell and his eyes turned serious. "You should wait in the TARDIS," he informed her gravely.

"What? You're not serious, are you?" Rose asked, flashing him a dubious look.

"Normally, no," the Doctor admitted blithely. "But right now, _yes_." He turned his back on her without another word so that he could examine the door behind him that glowed green and displayed the word "locked". _I'm about to do something very stupid,_ he warned her silently over their bond, _and I'd really rather you not be caught up in the consequences._

"Oh, come on, Doctor, do you _have_ to?" Rose had been around the ridiculous, jeopardy-friendly alien long enough to know what he was planning to do next, but she still winced regretfully as the Doctor reached forward with his sonic and the door before them suddenly flashed red and changed to display the word "unlocked".

"TARDIS. Now," he insisted, not turning to glance at her as the door slowly began moving, seemingly of its own free will. Something outside rapped against it in a measured, three-beat rhythm that couldn't have been anything other than a knock.

"But what about you?" Rose's wide, terrified eyes never left the door as she reached forward and pulled desperately against the Doctor's elbow in an attempt to get him to follow her back into safety.

 _Do as I say, Rose,_ he demanded. He didn't even turn back to glance at her out of the corner of his eye as he stared hard at the unlocking door in front of them.

It wasn't the strict tone of his voice that convinced her in the end, but rather the underlying sentiment that lay behind the words and revealed the truth that the Doctor refused to admit out loud. Rose could sense through his thoughts that he needed her _safe_ , and no matter how much he desired not to miss his chance to uncover this last, lingering mystery at the very end of the universe, he wasn't about to put her life on the line in order to do it.

 _You really are an idiot,_ Rose reminded him as she forced her white-knuckled grip around his arm to loosen and darted towards the safe reassurance of the TARDIS doors.

 _I know,_ the Doctor replied ruefully, but he offered no further excuse or apology as he let the doors fall shut between them and instead focused his full attention on the monsters waiting outside for him.

\--------------------

His plan to uncover the truth backfired, of course, and Orson ended up having to drag the Doctor's unconscious body back onto the TARDIS against his will when the air shell broke and he ended up nearly being vacuumed out into the nothingness at the end of the universe. Thankfully, even though the Doctor was out cold, Rose knew just enough about the TARDIS to attempt to get them back to a time period that was at least a little bit less turbulent than this one.

 _Home,_ Rose thought insistently, projecting a telepathic sensation of peace and safety as she moved around the console controls. _Take us home ..._ She silently prayed that the TARDIS would understand what it was she was asking of her. 

Her concentration was broken when the Doctor suddenly sucked in a deep gasp of air, though his eyelids remained firmly shut and his mind drifted in and out of sleep in the back of Rose's thoughts.

 _Just hold on, love,_ she assured him as gently as possible. _Nearly there ..._

The TARDIS whirred to life around them and began to rock unsteadily back and forth beneath their feet. When they did finally land again, Rose glared at the fuzzy, unresponsive console monitor and silently prodded the ship's consciousness in an attempt to find confirmation on where exactly they had landed.

 _What are you up to, Old Girl? Where have you brought us this time?_ She twisted the monitor out of her way when it offered no further clues and glared instead at the sleeping Time Lord currently leaning back against one of the jump seats just behind her. His brow was furrowed even in sleep, and Rose began to wonder what it was that he had seen out there waiting for him at the end of the universe that had managed to put such a troubled look on his face.

"Right. Orson, you stay here and look after the Doctor," Rose instructed, instantly stepping into the role of leader while her bondmate remained unconscious. "I'll go outside and take a look around."

"But ... what if it's not safe?" Orson insisted nervously, glancing at the TARDIS doors as though he still feared the hidden, lurking monsters that might be waiting for them just outside.

"I'll be careful. I promise!" Rose replied breezily. She flashed him a bright, confident smile as she brushed past him and headed determinedly towards the ship's doors.

"Is that what _he_ said before he sent _you_ to wait in the ship?" Orson asked, his expression grave as he hesitated near the console controls and watched her.

"Of course not," Rose snorted derisively. She only spared the young man a passing glance over her shoulder as she continued on her path towards the doors. "He wouldn't dare lie to me like that."

Orson continued to call something out after her in protest, but Rose didn't catch his words before the TARDIS doors swung shut between them and she suddenly found herself standing in the middle of what looked like some sort of dark, quiet barn. In such a small, silent space, her gaze immediately landed on the bed that stood raised up off of the ground on some sort of loft in front of her and her ears instantly picked up on the sounds of a young child crying.

"Hello?" Rose called out as gently as she could as she slowly approached the short, wooden ladder that led up to the child's bed. "Hello? Who's there?"

She held her breath and waited, but when no response other than sniffling sobs came, Rose hesitantly began to step up the rungs of the ladder and quietly crawled onto the platform near the bed. She could make out a single, small figure lying curled up in a tight ball just beneath the sheets.

"Hello?" Rose tried again as she tentatively continued to step closer. "Can you hear me? Can you tell me your name? Or why you're crying?"

 _Stay away!_ The sudden, telepathic command hit Rose like a slap to the face. She sucked in a startled gasp of air as she immediately froze in place and stared down in shock at the gently quivering child. In all of the years that Rose had been traveling about through space and time, the only other person who she had ever really been in direct telepathic communication with was the Doctor. Having the presence of someone else in her mind who was _not_ her husband threw her off balance enough to startle her into momentary silence.

When she finally regained sense enough to hesitantly reach out in the direction that the terrified cry had come from, Rose's thoughts were immediately and violently pushed away once more as the young mind instantly retreated from her advances.

 _Leave me alone!_ the small voice cried out again. The child's mind was clearly guarded in an attempt to keep his thoughts hidden from her, but he was either too young or too frightened to keep a good hold on his mental shields. His terror and sorrow kept seeping through despite his many attempts to keep Rose at a distance.

 _Come, now, what's the matter?_ she asked gently. She took another small step closer and came to a stop when her knees brushed against the edge of the bed before her. _You can tell me. I won't hurt you._

 _I came out here to be_ alone, the young child reminded her angrily. However, Rose could sense the bitter loneliness and fear that hid just beneath his words - the silent thoughts that called out desperately for company and comfort.

"That's a shame, because I was looking for someone to talk to," Rose murmured quietly as she slowly lowered herself onto the very edge of the young boy's bed. She was careful not to disturb the lump that still lay curled up beneath the sheets. "It's too quiet and too dark to be alone, don't you think?"

The child didn't respond, but the last of his weak, crumbling mental barriers finally faded away, and the sudden, sharp pain of his heartache hit Rose right in the chest, nearly making her double over under the onslaught of the raw, untempered emotions of childhood that suddenly washed over her.

 _Shush, now, love,_ she murmured soothingly against his loud, frenzied mind. "Why don't you tell me what happened?" she suggested lightly. "I'm a very good listener, me. Pretty decent with advice, too. What do you say, eh?"

_You'll only laugh. That's what all the rest do. They don't understand, they don't care ..._

_I care,_ Rose insisted, gently filling the young boy's head with as many calm reassurances as she could manage in such a strange, dark place.

However, before she got the chance to coax the child any further into opening up to her, the Doctor's presence suddenly came roaring back to life in the back of Rose's head, and he immediately began reaching out for her in panic.

 _Rose?_ he demanded desperately, instantly forcing her thoughts to focus on him and not the crying child who lay before her. _Rose, where are you?_

"Who's there?" the young boy asked out loud, his small voice cracking with fear as his tears finally subsided and he suddenly went very still.

Rose reached out her hand in an attempt to reassure him, but the moment that her palm came into contact with the young boy's shoulder, a jolt like lightning raced through her entire being and the telepathic bond within her mind vibrated and hummed as though it were a circuit being overloaded. She had to bite down on her own tongue to keep herself from whispering the Doctor's true name out loud as it built up within her like a wave, echoing just behind her skull and begging to be released.

When the child suddenly started crying again, Rose screwed her eyes shut and forced herself to measure her breathing and calm her racing thoughts. Everything inside of her felt as though it was crying out for the man who she had abandoned back in the TARDIS - the man who _this boy_ would some day become, and the sudden sensation of timelines swirling around her made her feel dizzy and sick.

 _There, there,_ she whispered gently, using telepathic communication instead of words since she still wasn't quite sure if she could trust her own voice in that moment. _Don't be afraid, love. Just listen ..._

 _Scared, frightened, alone, so alone ..._ the child's thoughts rambled desperately.

 _You're not alone,_ Rose reminded him gently. _There's me._

And even though Rose still couldn't for the life of her figure out why the TARDIS had decided to bring her here to meet her bondmate's younger self, she decided that as long as she was there, she might as well make herself useful doing the one thing that she had been doing ever since she had met the Doctor. She gently took the small child's hand in her own, and quietly reassured him that he would never be alone - not so long as she was around - and that he would never have to be afraid, either - not so long as he stayed clever and kind and never ran away when he could stand and fight instead.

The Doctor was still clamoring loudly against the back of her thoughts the entire time, desperately seeking out answers and begging for her to come back, but Rose pushed him from her mind and refused to allow him reentry until she had projected the sensation of sleep into the young boy's head and felt him drift off into peaceful unconsciousness.

When she finally returned to the TARDIS once more, Rose barely managed to close the doors fully behind her before she was instantly being bombarded by her bondmate and his many, frenzied questions. "What's happened? Where did you bring us? Where have we landed?" he demanded, his eyebrows drawn low over dark, stormy eyes that were roaming over her features with a look of suspicion.

"Don't look where we are," Rose insisted, backing up against the closed doors and blocking the way as he attempted to reach around her to look. _Please, Doctor,_ she added silently. _Let's just go._

"Why?" he asked, his voice a low growl as he continued to glare down at her. _What did you see out there?_

"Just take off. Don't ask questions." Rose's tone left little room for discussion or argument as she evenly met his gaze and filled his head with silent reassurances.

But questions seemed to be the only thing racing through the Doctor's mind in that moment - ranging from curious to fearful to downright hurt as he quietly wondered why Rose refused to open up to him.

However, Rose was patient, and she waited in silence until he was finally able to force himself to obey her command. She breathed a small sigh of relief as she sensed the Doctor sorting all of his concern and doubt away for another time.

 _Please don't be afraid, love,_ Rose murmured quietly as the Doctor turned stiffly away from her and began to move back towards the TARDIS controls once more. _Just trust me._

The Doctor flashed her one last quick, suspicious look out of the corner of his eye before he trained his gaze back on the console and began to set their destination for Orson's time. He didn't say anything in response to her, but his willingness to obey her cryptic commands was answer enough - he was putting their collective fates in her hands and trusting her to make the right decision. The power and weight of that responsibility was a heavy burden to bear, but Rose took it all the same, knowing that she might just be the only person in the entire universe who the Doctor trusted in such a way.

The thought filled her heart to overflowing with love for him, and she didn't bother to hide the wave of adoration that swept through her as they took off and left Gallifrey behind them once more.


	12. Chapter Twelve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just two idiots in love <3 <3

Rose found that she couldn't seem to stop staring after they had finally returned Orson to his home and retreated back into the safety of the vortex once more. She knew that the Doctor was very aware of this fact - perhaps even more so than she, herself, was - but he dutifully kept his eyes on the controls and his mouth shut as he checked the readouts coming from his ship and attempted to ignore her intense appraisal.

After a long moment of silence had passed, the Doctor finally raised his gaze to hers with an expression that was both apprehensive and searching as he slowly reached out and asked, _What ...?_

A wide smile instantly broke out over Rose's features in response and she rushed forward without warning to throw her arms around him in a tight, bracing hug. The Doctor jolted in surprise, his entire body flinching away from her on instinct even as his mind tentatively pressed deeper into hers in eager response.

"Er, what are you doing?" he grumbled irritably. "I'm sure I remember telling you that I'm _not_ a hugging person."

 _Liar,_ Rose teased, reaching up to press her lips against his cheek before she finally released him. She didn't go far, though. Instead, she slipped into the small space that remained between him and the TARDIS console.

His expression had gone all soft again, and Rose knew that she was grinning like an idiot as she eagerly let her eyes roam over his features, attempting to memorize this look of his and store it away somewhere close to her heart where she could cherish it forever.

She was so lost in her own dazed thoughts, that she very nearly startled when she suddenly felt the Doctor's fingers against the underside of her chin. He gently tilted her face up to meet his gaze head-on. Rose's smile immediately dissipated into wide-eyed wonder as she looked directly into his deep, blue eyes and felt the telepathic bond between them flare and grow brighter.

Before she knew what was happening, Rose could feel the Doctor's presence in the back of her mind swell. Suddenly she was listening to her own words echoing back to her in her head as he silently replayed his memory of her from just a few moments ago. _Please don't be afraid, love. Just trust me ..._

Rose remembered saying the words in hopeless desperation, not knowing for sure if he was actually going to heed her command and place his trust in her hands or not. However, by examining the memory through the Doctor's eyes, she could clearly see that she had never really had any reason to worry. He had put his full faith and trust in her long ago, and nothing so simple as a regeneration was going to change that any time soon.

Before Rose had the chance to question the Doctor or react to the strange experience of hearing her own voice parroted back to her, she was completely overcome by the sensation of the last of the Doctor's mental barriers finally falling away. Suddenly, there was nothing at all left between their two minds as he completely filled her thoughts in a way that he hadn't done ever since he had regenerated.

Rose sucked in a breath of air on a gasp. Her eyelids drifted shut against her will, making her miss the moment when the Doctor finally leaned forward and sealed his lips over hers in a solid, confident kiss that she felt all the way down to her toes.

With his entire mind bared before her, Rose was at last able to see all of the things that he had been attempting to keep hidden from her ever since he had died and come into this new body. She could see the deep, abiding fear that he held onto - a fear that maybe she wouldn't want him anymore; a fear that she might leave at any moment. He had also been concealing a lingering, bitter frustration with himself for all that he had put her through and the pain that he had caused. But beneath all of those dark thoughts sat a deep well of love and devotion that he guarded jealously like a secret treasure close to his hearts - an overwhelming, consuming emotion that was all completely for her.

Rose was positively drowning in it all - drowning in _him_ \- and it wasn't until the Doctor's lips finally released hers that she remembered how to breathe again. The two of them stood there for a moment - frozen in time as the Doctor patiently waited for Rose's response. Rose, for her part, was attempting to make sense of the dizzying flurry of emotions going through her head that were both hers and his combined.

When she finally blinked her eyes open once more, she found herself confronted by that same, soft expression of his, and she immediately knew that she didn't have any real choice in the matter. She reached up and greedily pulled his mouth back to her own in a long, desperate kiss.

Rose knew from past experience how different the Doctor could be after each new regeneration, so she took her time in slowly mapping out the line of his mouth, the taste of his lips, and the way that this new body fit against hers.

The Doctor, for his part, was still being ridiculously tentative with her. He had one hand tenderly brushing the side of her neck, and the other resting awkwardly against her waist. It took Rose a moment to find the right button to press - it was different with every new man, after all - but she quickly discovered that it was her fingernails along his scalp and the back of his neck that made him shiver and growl into her mouth and instantly turned him into putty in her hands. Once this tactic had been utilized, she knew that she no longer had to worry about him being nervous or hesitant with her anymore. Both of his hands immediately found their way into her hair and he pressed her up hard against the console behind her.

Rose hummed lightly against his lips in approval, and he quickly filled her head with all of the desperate, pleading apologies that he had been holding back from her for far too long. _Sorry, so sorry ... I didn't want to lose you, my Rose, I could never ... I didn't want to force you into anything that you didn't want ..._

 _I want you,_ Rose reminded him simply, tilting her head in an attempt to get better access to his hungry lips. _That's all I've ever wanted, you daft old idiot._

 _Missed you,_ the Doctor thought desperately as he sighed against her. His breath was warm against her cheek and made her heart melt with fondness for him.

However, Rose didn't immediately return the sentiment for fear that he might incorrectly assume that she was missing some sort of past version of himself that she could never have back. She didn't want the Doctor to think for a second that she wasn't appreciating the wonderful gift of a man who was here with her now. So instead, she forced their lips apart so that she could meet his gaze once more. She silently filled his mind with promises of commitment and devotion that would long outlast whatever forms the two of them carried.

"I love you," she told him simply, needing him to know that the sentiment existed outside of his many regenerations. However, these three words, this one time, were meant specifically for _him_.

She could feel the way that the tender declaration hit the Doctor hard right in the space between his hearts. He had spoken the same words to her before, of course - but it was a rare, indulgent secret that had remained between the two of them ever since Bad Wolf Bay. More often than not, it was whispered into her head over their bond rather than spoken out loud. It didn't bother Rose, though - she knew how deep the sentiment ran, and in all the years that she had been married to the Doctor, she had never once doubted his sincerity for a second. But in that moment, he seemed to understand that she needed to hear the words out loud rather than just sense them.

"I love you, too." His voice was little more than a whisper, but his tone was confident and sure as he met her gaze evenly and made sure that she knew that he meant it. It was the first time that she had heard the words from this man's voice and lips, but the feeling behind them remained the same. When he leaned down to kiss her gently again, the sensation that flooded through their bond was both familiar and comfortable.

"I should probably be cross with you, you know," Rose reminded him as his lips trailed across her jawline and his arms wound tight around her. "You made me wait a long time for you to come around." She sighed as she hugged her own arms tight around his neck and whispered silently, _Did you really think that I wouldn't want you anymore?_

She felt more than heard the Doctor's responding sigh as he pressed his lips hard against the side of her neck, just below her jaw bone. _I wasn't doubting you, love - I could never do that,_ he muttered silently. _I was doubting myself._

With his mind fully open to hers once more, Rose didn't have to ask him to elaborate. She could see as clear as day the way that he had spent the time since his regeneration silently testing himself and worrying over whether he could still be considered good enough for her. He had pushed her away in the beginning in an attempt to keep her safe and give her time to adjust, but that plan had quickly backfired. He had been punishing himself for it ever since, questioning whether he even really deserved to be with her and constantly worrying that she might finally realize that she'd be better off without him and leave him behind just like all the others had ...

Rose quickly put an end to that particular train of thought as she released her hold on his neck to place her hands on either side of his face. She firmly forced him to meet her gaze. "I hate to break it to you, Doctor," she muttered as she smoothed her thumbs gently over his cheekbones and let her eyes roam over every single detail of his face, "but when I promised you _forever_ , I wasn't lying. The sooner you manage to get that through your thick, alien skull, the better."

Her confident words were rewarded with another one of the Doctor's small, heartfelt smiles, which Rose gladly traced with her fingertips. She wanted to memorize the shape and feel of it. When she followed her fingers with her lips and gently kissed him once more, she was pleased to find that there was no more hesitation between them. The Doctor easily and eagerly matched her efforts to claim his sincere expression of adoration as her own.

Rose had lost track of time long ago, but she knew that their snog didn't last nearly long enough before they were suddenly interrupted by the loud, muffled ringing of her cell phone once more.

The Doctor groaned in frustration as he brought both of his hands to either side of Rose's face and stubbornly refused to let her break away from his lips. _Let it go to voicemail,_ he begged silently. He tilted her head closer and did his very best to distract her from the intrusive noise.

Rose breathed out a small huff of laughter against his cheek as she continued to return the press of his mouth against hers, while at the same time reaching into her pocket to retrieve the ringing device. She hadn't been able to stop the Doctor from throwing her phone across the room earlier, but she wasn't about to let him try and do it again. She was still curious as to who could have possibly gotten her number, after all - and she was determined not to be distracted from the mystery, no matter how hard the Doctor tried to convince her otherwise.

When she finally forced the Doctor to release her, Rose could feel his childish disappointment and remorse, but she didn't have the chance to reassure him before her gaze caught and held on the small device in her hand.

She furrowed her brow at the glowing phone screen as she examined the unknown caller. "It's the same number as before ..." she muttered quietly. Her quiet concern immediately shook the Doctor out of his gloomy mood, and he, too, glanced down at the ringing phone that Rose was holding up between them.

Rose didn't manage to answer the call in time before it went to voicemail, but as soon as the alert appeared on the screen to let her know that there was a new message waiting for her, she immediately pressed it and held the phone up to her ear to listen. The Doctor remained standing with his hands resting gently against Rose's sides as he watched her carefully. His gaze silently searched her expression as he waited impatiently for her to explain who had interrupted them yet again.

"Er ... that was the school ..." Rose finally muttered as she hung up the phone and returned it to her pocket once more. "They ... want me to start Monday morning."

"Start what?" the Doctor asked, his brows screwing up into a look of dubious confusion.

"Start _teaching_ ," Rose sighed exasperatedly. She rolled her eyes at him before nervously dropping her gaze to her fidgeting fingers. "Do I really have to do this, Doctor? I don't know the first thing about teaching!"

"It's the best way to figure out who's behind all of this," he replied slowly, his gaze also dropping to her hands in quiet consideration. "We'll have to play into their plans for a little while - just until we can find out who they are and why they're doing this."

"But ... does that mean that I can't travel with you anymore ...?" Rose asked quietly. Her heart broke over the very idea of not being able to constantly be at the Doctor's side. In the vast expanse of her long, long life, the only time that she had ever truly been separated from the Doctor had been those two, torturous years when she had worked with Torchwood in her parallel world. She had spent almost every waking moment of that time throwing herself into a dimension cannon and launching herself into the Doctor's timeline in an attempt to get back to him.

Rose felt a quick flash of furious denial rush through the Doctor's mind in response to her pleading question, but he didn't get the chance to properly answer her before his words were cut off by yet another loud, ringing noise. This time, it was coming from the TARDIS doors rather than Rose's pocket.

The Doctor's scowl somehow grew even darker as he stared hard at his ship's closed doors. "Hardly anyone in the universe has that number ..." he growled ominously.

"Do you think ...? I mean, could it be the person who's behind all of this?" Rose breathed quietly as the two of them slowly separated and faced the door together.

"There are very few people that it _could_ be," the Doctor replied darkly.

Rose turned slowly to meet his eye, and despite the deep furrow in his brows, she could feel her lips turning up at the corners. She tilted her head towards the door and muttered wryly, "Go on, then."

The Doctor didn't need to be told twice. A sly smirk of his own was quickly spreading across his features as he eagerly darted towards the ringing phone. Rose followed close behind him as they once again set aside the deeply pressing matters that were attempting to corner them in on all sides in favor of running off after a new distraction instead.


	13. Chapter Thirteen

The ill-timed phone call ended up taking the Doctor and Rose to the Bank of Karabraxos, where their memories were wiped and they were promptly given instructions on how to break into the most secure bank in the galaxy. They worked alongside a woman who could change her face even more easily than the Doctor could, and a man who had a literal computer for a brain.

Stranger than any of that, though, was the large alien creature that they found trapped in the depths of the bank that could telepathically root out lies and turn a person's head into liquid soup.

"Nobody move!" the Doctor breathed as they all curiously gazed into the clouded glass chamber where the thing appeared to be kept. "Nobody say a word. It's cocooned - forced hibernation. Its power is probably dormant."

However, the thing didn't stay dormant for long. Rose gasped in terrified surprise the moment that she felt the conscious mind of another living thing suddenly rooting around inside of her head. It served as yet another reminder that it had been a very, _very_ long time since anyone other than the Doctor had been inside Rose's mind, and she struggled to stay still as she attempted to fight back against the forceful intrusion.

"Clara, it's locked onto you," the Doctor whispered as he cautiously took a step closer to her. His mind was already joining forces with hers as he hurriedly put up every barrier and shield that he could think of in an attempt to keep her thoughts safe. He was calm and collected through the whole ordeal, but Rose could feel the Doctor's rage bubbling just beneath the surface of his thoughts as he fought desperately to protect his bondmate.

Fortunately, the teller's focus was broken just long enough for the Doctor, Rose, and Psi to escape, but unfortunately, that left it free to latch onto Saibra's thoughts instead. Rose watched in silent horror as the Doctor offered the young woman the "exit strategy" that they had found earlier during their search through the bank and she disappeared in a sudden flash of light right before their eyes.

After that, Rose did her best to calm her bondmate's suddenly-frenzied thoughts, but the Doctor was just as gruff and cold as he always was when he was attempting to shove the rest of the world away to hide his own emotions. However, it had been a while since Rose had been on the receiving end of that hurtful, blatant disregard.

"Saibra is _dead_ , we are alive," the Doctor reminded her and Psi pointedly. "Prioritize if you want to stay that way."

"Oh, is _that_ why you call yourself 'the Doctor'?" Psi demanded angrily. "The _professional detachment_."

"Listen," the Doctor growled dangerously, "when we're done here, by all means, you go and find yourself a shoulder to cry on - you'll probably need that. 'Til then, what you need is _me_."

Rose's heart suddenly wept for the Doctor as their fully-reformed telepathic bond offered her a glimpse at all the rest of the words that her bondmate refused to say in that moment. He didn't _want_ to be this man - the one who put emotions and empathy aside and focused on cruel, hard facts instead. But if he wasn't going to do it, then who else would? There were lives at stake, here - _Rose_ was in danger - and he couldn't stop until he was certain that everyone was going to be okay.

"Underneath it all, he isn't really like that," Rose murmured quietly under her breath as the Doctor turned on his heel and stalked down the hallway ahead of them. Even though she kept her voice low and meant it only for Psi, she knew that the Doctor could hear her as well. She silently reaffirmed her words for him by tugging against his thoughts and reminding him that she had had to deal with his cold, dark moods before, and she wasn't about to be fooled by his gruff display now.

Psi, however, wasn't as eager to let the issue drop. "It's very obvious that you've been with him for a while," he muttered darkly as he glared down at her. "You are _really_ good at the excuses."

Rose liked Psi, she really did - she had a great amount of sympathy for him and all that he had had to go through to get to this point in life - but she wasn't about to let him talk about her bondmate in that way. She leveled her own, dangerous glare on him in response. "Well, it's very obvious that _you_ haven't spent much time with him at all, because you clearly don't know him. Not like I do."

Rose knew the Doctor on a level that no other living creature ever would - she even suspected that sometimes she knew him better than he knew himself. So she wasn't about to let Psi judge him for doing what he thought was best in an attempt to save the rest of their lives - not when Psi couldn't possibly see the heartache that it caused the Doctor to do so and the way that it filled him with silent self-loathing.

The young, augmented human flashed Rose a confused, dubious look, but made no further response as the two of them quickly set aside their argument and rushed off after the Doctor in an attempt to avoid being hunted down by the teller and its terrifying, mind-melting capabilities.

Rose found that she couldn't really begrudge the creature for its violence, though - not even after it attempted to attack Psi and then turned once more on her. When they eventually found out the truth of the teller - that it wasn't truly the last of its kind, and that its mate had been imprisoned in the private vault within the Bank of Karabraxos all along - Rose found that she could feel nothing more than an overwhelming, heartbreaking sympathy for the poor creature.

They liberated the imprisoned alien in the end, and Rose smiled in victorious satisfaction as she and the Doctor watched the two telepathic beings walk off into the new, peaceful home that the Doctor had found for them.

"So much mental traffic in the universe," the Doctor mused quietly as they watched the happy couple slowly disappear over the horizon, " _solitude_ is the only peace ..."

"It's not really ' _solitude_ ' if they have each other, is it?" Rose reminded him as she pointedly reached for the Doctor's hand and laced her fingers with his own. _Fancy a break from the box?_ Her gaze dropped to the Doctor's lips and she imagined the many different leisurely activities that they could enjoy together here in such a peaceful place. It had been a while since they had had a proper vacation away from saving the universe, after all, and it seemed as good a place as any to hang out for a while and relax.

However, the Doctor merely flashed her a sly smirk as he gently squeezed her fingers and leaned in to place an indulgent kiss on the crown of her head. _Can't. You have school tomorrow, remember?_ he replied pointedly.

Rose heaved a hard, defeated sigh, but she still stubbornly pointed out the fact that they lived in a literal _time machine_ and " _tomorrow_ " could be whenever they chose for it to be.

However, she didn't bother arguing with him as the Doctor gently led her back towards the TARDIS and resolutely prepared to return them to modern-day London. After all, she knew as well as he did that there was only so long that they could go on putting off the inevitable. They were going to need to face Coal Hill School and whoever it was who was leading them there sooner rather than later.

\--------------------

"Have I mentioned yet that I really, _really_ don't want to do this?" Rose asked as she tugged at the hem of the new dress that the TARDIS had gifted her for her first day at her new job. She nervously brushed her hair back over her shoulder and fidgeted uncomfortably in the doorway. "How's this? How do I look?"

"Does it matter?" the Doctor replied suspiciously, though his lingering gaze and pleased thoughts answered Rose's question regardless.

"It's my first day, I want to look ... _presentable_ ," Rose reminded him. She knew that she didn't need to express out loud how jittery and nervous she felt and how she was doubting herself at every turn. She couldn't have hid her anxious emotions from the Doctor in that moment even if she wanted to. It had been a while since she had had a real job, after all - and her _last_ job had been hunting down alien tech for Torchwood in a parallel universe. She didn't think that much of her old work experience would cross over into her new career path as a school teacher.

"And what are _you_ going to do all day while I'm away?" Rose continued conversationally as she busily smoothed her hands over her front and eyed the Doctor warily. "Have you got any plans?"

She knew that it would be unreasonable to ask the Doctor to stick around and wait for her, even though she couldn't deny the fact that she would have much preferred to do all of this knowing that he would be there at her side. After all, they still had never finished their discussion from earlier, when Rose had asked him if her new job was going to get in the way of their traveling together. She couldn't help but wonder what the Doctor planned to get up to without her around.

"I've got some plans, yeah," he replied nonchalantly as he fidgeted with the TARDIS monitor. She couldn't help but notice how he was carefully keeping it at an angle where she wouldn't be able to see its readings. "I'm going undercover - _deep_ cover," he elaborated cryptically.

"Can you _do_ deep cover?" Rose asked dubiously.

"What do you mean? Of course I can do deep cover!" the Doctor retaliated with a frustrated, hurt look.

Rose smiled in amusement. She was completely unfazed by his scowl as she leaned up and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Promise not to get into too much trouble without me?" she asked as she began backing towards the TARDIS doors and nervously prepared herself for her new, strange, human life.

"Yes, boss," the Doctor vowed, his sly smile filling Rose with a series of complicated emotions that she was forced to turn her back on so that she could focus instead on the day that lay ahead of her.

 _See you after work, dear,_ the Doctor teased silently as she securely shut the doors behind her.

 _Don't push your luck, darling,_ Rose replied dryly. However, she wasn't able to suppress her amusement or her abundant affection for him as she resolutely put the TARDIS behind her and headed off for Coal Hill School.

\--------------------

Rose was surprised to find that the first person who she ran into upon returning to the small, mundane school building was none other than Danny Pink. He was standing at the front doors and gazing out curiously at the crowd of kids and teachers that surrounded him as though he were looking for something (or, perhaps, someone). However, what was really surprising was how pleased Rose was to see him as his eyes immediately landed on her and a wide, welcoming smile stretched over his features.

"Clara!" he called out to her in an excited greeting. "Good to see you back again."

"Couldn't stay away," Rose replied with a small shrug. She knew that Danny wouldn't be able to catch her none-too-subtle implication that she was only back here against her free will. "Were you waiting for me?" she added suspiciously as she carefully assessed his eager expression.

"Thought you might need some showing around, since it's your first day and all ..." the young man replied good-naturedly.

Rose flashed him a small smile of thanks in response, but made sure to keep a respectable distance between them as he once more held the door open for her and ushered her down the hall further into the school. The last thing that she needed on her first day at her new job was for Danny to get the wrong idea and try asking her out again. However, she couldn't deny the fact that she was comforted by his presence, which made her feel a little less alone in this strange, new place.

"So ... what have you been up to?" he asked conversationally as they moved through the crowds of teachers and students milling about within the hallway. "I overheard Mr. Armitage saying that he was having trouble getting a hold of you."

"Oh, I've just been ... traveling," Rose replied awkwardly as she nervously eyed the mass of students surrounding them. There were just so _many_ of them. How was she ever going to be able to pull this off?

"Oh? Anywhere nice?" Danny asked curiously.

Rose opened her mouth to respond, but her words fell into stunned silence as the two of them rounded the corner and she instantly laid eyes on Mr. Armitage talking animatedly with a tall man wearing a long brown coat and holding a pushbroom in his hand.

"Oh, that must be the new caretaker," Danny muttered as he carefully inspected Rose's wide-eyed expression. "Do you know him?" Danny's voice held no small amount of suspicion as Rose continued to stare in dumbfounded silence at the familiar, unexpected features of her bondmate, who was now walking towards them with a knowing, superior-looking smirk on his face.

"Doctor ...?" she asked breathlessly as he moved slowly past her.

"Deep cover!" he whispered animatedly in her direction, stubbornly offering no further response as he moved quickly past and darted around the corner at the end of the hall.

"Clara?" Danny asked curiously as he peered slowly between Rose and the end of the hallway where the Doctor had disappeared to.

"Sorry, Danny, you'll just have to ... excuse me for one moment," Rose replied haltingly, barely sparing the time to cast the young man a parting look over her shoulder as she immediately moved to chase after the Doctor. "I'll catch up with you later, yeah? And ... thanks for waiting for me!"

She smiled brightly and waved a quick goodbye before disappearing around the corner and moving to follow after her elusive, infuriating bondmate. She didn't have any idea what the daft, old alien thought he was playing at, but she had a bad taste in the back of her mouth and a lingering suspicion that she wasn't going to like the outcome of this whole situation.


	14. Chapter Fourteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The "Kill the Moon" episode will not be making an appearance in this fic, but that doesn't mean that an argument isn't coming ...

"What in the _hell_ do you think you're doing?" Rose hissed under her breath as soon as she had slipped into the small, empty room that the Doctor had retreated to. She shut the doors securely behind her, making certain that there were no other living creatures within earshot of them before she really laid into him.

"What? You think you're the only one who's allowed to get a day-job?" the Doctor murmured with a disinterested shrug. He swung around to face her and leaned his weight casually against the long broomstick in his hand.

"You can't do this." Rose pointed a finger accusingly in the Doctor's direction and ran it up and down to indicate his entire, general persona. " _You_ cannot pass yourself off as a _real_ person among _actual_ people!"

"Why? Says who?" he demanded indignantly.

But Rose didn't get a chance to respond, as the door behind her suddenly opened once more and she saw Danny's familiar features poking curiously through the doorway. "Ah! There you are, Clara. I was trying to tell you, there's assembly ..." His words trailed off into silence and his easy smile melted into a look of skepticism as his eyes suddenly landed on the Doctor. "Oh ... You're with the ... caretaker ..." he muttered haltingly in obvious confusion.

"Yes, exactly! That's who I am," the Doctor replied eagerly. "My name is John Smith, but you can call me the Doctor."

"Why ...?" Danny asked suspiciously.

"It's just a nickname that he goes by," Rose interrupted with a small wave of her hand, wishing desperately that she could simply make this entire situation disappear.

"Do you two ... know each other?" Danny asked slowly, his curious gaze traveling from Rose to the Doctor and back again. "Is he like your ... _dad_ or something?"

"Her _what_?" the Doctor demanded bitterly.

"No, he's not my dad." Rose heaved a sigh and rolled her eyes at the two of them as her thinning patience suddenly threatened to run completely dry. She had intended to keep the Doctor's presence a secret from everything and everyone in this strange school, but if he was insistent on showing up and shoving himself into the situation regardless, then she figured that she might as well set the record straight once and for all and make sure that both men clearly understood her position on the matter.

"He's my husband," she declared simply as she stepped up to the Doctor's side and took his free hand in her own.

She felt the Doctor's sharp stab of surprise against her thoughts as he shuffled awkwardly at her side and struggled to remain looking cool and casual in the wake of her sudden, blatant admission. Danny's expression froze into a look of intense confusion for a moment before he dropped his gaze and quickly forced himself to appear appropriately apologetic and chastened.

"Oh, I ... I'm sorry, I didn't realize ..." he stuttered awkwardly as he stared steadfastly down at his shoes in embarrassment.

"And who are _you_ , then?" The Doctor took a half-step forward but made sure to keep his hand wrapped tight around Rose's in a silent display of possession that flooded Rose with a host of mixed feelings.

"This is Danny," Rose replied quietly, silently berating herself for being so cruel to the poor young man. He hadn't asked for all of this to be sprung on him, after all. He was just trying to be nice - even if his attempts had been a bit too keen for her liking. "Danny Pink."

 _Pink ...?_ the Doctor repeated curiously over their mental connection. _What, like Rupert and Orson?_

Rose winced as she forced herself to meet his gaze and flashed him an apologetic look, which only deepened as the Doctor's eyes grew wide in an expression of surprised understanding.

"Sorry, I really didn't mean to intrude ..." Danny was muttering under his breath as he shuffled awkwardly back out of the doorway. However, he didn't get very far before the Doctor whirled on him once more and continued to press him for more information.

"Pink?" he repeated once more, his expression severe as he glared across the room at the other man. " _Danny_ Pink? Tell me, Danny, would you happen to know a certain young man named Rupert?"

"Sorry ...?" Danny asked, his eyes going wide as he glared up at the Doctor with a sharp look of distrust.

"You said that you didn't know him!" The Doctor ignored Danny's shocked response and turned his glare back on Rose instead.

"What are you talking about? Clara, what's going on?" Danny demanded, his eyebrows furrowing into a glare of his own as he continued to eye the Doctor suspiciously.

"Yes, _Clara_ , why don't you tell us?" the Doctor agreed, his tone blatant and challenging as he pointedly dropped Rose's hand between them. His hurt betrayal echoed across their bond and silently accused her. "Why don't you tell us _all_ what's going on here?"

Rose glared at her bondmate in return as she echoed back to him her own sensation of hurt and betrayal at being so quickly turned upon. She hadn't _asked_ for this to happen, after all. In fact, she had tried very hard to make sure that this _wouldn't_ happen by keeping the Doctor as far away from Danny as she could. It wasn't _her_ fault that he constantly felt the need to take matters into his own hands

"What am I talking about? Doesn't even matter," the Doctor grumbled dismissively. "Right, I'm going to hypnotize him. I'm going to _erase_ his memory."

"No! Doctor, stop!" Rose shouted in desperation, immediately rushing forward to place herself between the two men. She saw Danny's eyes go wide in fear at the same time that the Doctor's narrowed in suspicion.

"Tiny little brain, it'll only take a moment," the Doctor continued grimly as though he hadn't heard her. His glare was positively dangerous as he stared hard at Danny over Rose's shoulder.

"What is he talking about?" Danny asked nervously. "Clara? What does he mean by ... 'erase my memory'?"

"Doctor," Rose stated tersely, refusing to move or continue until he reluctantly met her gaze once more. " _No_."

She silently counted the seconds that ticked by as she watched the Doctor's jaw work while he gritted his teeth and glared at her from underneath those stormy, furrowed brows of his. When he finally dropped his gaze from her once more in bitter defeat, he paused only long enough to flash Danny a flat, fake smile as he brushed past him. He muttered lowly over his shoulder, "Fine, then. Have it your way. I've got a lot of work to do, anyway. I'll see you after school, _dear_."

His tone held none of the light, teasing air that he had used earlier that day when Rose had reluctantly stepped from the TARDIS and prepared to resign herself to a long, boring day without him. In fact, the simple words spoken in that low, bitter monotone hurt Rose more than any angry retort ever could.

Danny was already turning back to face Rose again, his mouth hanging open and a thousand different questions lurking just behind his eyes, but Rose cut them all off as she turned to once again follow after her infuriating bondmate. "I'll explain later, Danny. Promise," she murmured dismissively.

His expression told her that he had no illusions that this was, in fact, a bald-faced lie, but he didn't try to stop her as she rushed down the hallway after the Doctor and left the poor young man completely lost and confused in her wake.

\--------------------

Rose returned to the TARDIS just in time to see the Doctor shucking his caretaker's trenchcoat down to the ground with an air of resigned defeat.

"Don't you have a class to teach or something?" he called to her warily over his shoulder. He didn't even turn to offer her a sidelong glance as he slowly climbed the stairs that led to the upper levels of the console room. _Your_ boyfriend _might be missing you._

"Doctor ..." Rose sighed, her tone warring between irritation and sympathy as she desperately attempted to find a way to make things right with him again all while fighting the urge to reach out and slap him for his childish, hurtful remarks.

"Why did you lie?" The Doctor completely ignored the way that she was subtly attempting to calm his thoughts and make him see reason. "Why did you say that you didn't recognize Rupert and Orson?"

"I didn't think it was important ..." Rose attempted lamely. After a moment's pause, she furrowed her brows at him and added defiantly, "Besides, does it really matter? We gave up our search for that hidden creature in the end, didn't we?"

"Yes, because _you_ told me to," the Doctor reminded her. His tone was quiet but sharp and lethal as a knife while his thoughts raged wildly within him. _You told me to_ trust _you_ , he added bitterly over their bond.

"Why were you even at the school today?" Rose snapped in retaliation. She decided to blatantly disregard the accusation in his tone as she steadfastly determined to get to the bottom of how this whole disaster of a situation had managed to come about in the first place. Her gaze tracked his slow movements around the console room above her as she glared hard at his back and continued heatedly, "Were you coming to keep an eye on me? Did you think I couldn't manage a day alone by myself without you there to hold my hand? I'm not a bloody teenager anymore, Doctor!"

"Language," he interrupted her, his tone low and dangerous as he finally cast her a narrow, sidelong look out of the corner of his eye.

"Oh, don't you _dare_ tell me to mind my language!" Rose snapped in reply, her gaze just as fierce as his was, even though she didn't have his menacing eyebrows to back up the expression. "I'll have you know that I was doing _just fine_ without you! I didn't ask for your help!"

"No, of course not, why would you need _my_ help when you've got Mr. Maths glued to your side all day?" The Doctor turned his back on her once more and studiously ignored her pointed glare.

"This was why I didn't tell you about Danny!" Rose replied angrily. "I didn't want you getting all jealous again, especially when ..."

She didn't finish her sentence, but the sequence of her thoughts completed the picture clearly enough for him. She had fought so hard to get the Doctor to open back up to her and trust her again. She had been waiting for him to come around and restore all that had been lost between them for far too long, and now she was watching it all crumble to pieces around her. Everything that she had worked so hard to achieve was suddenly destroyed as the Doctor bitterly retreated from outside of her reach once more.

However, he wasn't quite able to hide from her the way that his thoughts suddenly jumbled and tangled around one another as a jolt of fear slid like ice through his veins. He didn't need to put words to the sickening sense of doubt that suddenly made his hearts skip a beat and made Rose want to cry out in bitter frustration.

He thought that she was somehow embarrassed or ashamed of him. He thought that she had lied in an attempt to keep him a secret from Danny. He thought that perhaps she had finally found something in Clara's boring, normal world that she preferred over her life in the TARDIS and had at long last made up her mind to leave him once and for all.

Everything within Rose immediately cried out all at once in silent, desperate denial as she mounted the console room stairs in three great leaps and instantly threw her arms around her bondmate's tall, skinny figure. The Doctor still maintained his stiff position with his back firmly facing her, so Rose ended up with her right cheek pressed up tight against the space between his shoulder blades as she clung tight to him and refused to let go.

"Doctor you are absolutely a mad, ridiculous, _impossible_ man, but I could never, _ever_ be ashamed of you," she stated definitively as she buried her face in his coat and made sure that he could sense the sincerity of this truth quite clearly through their telepathic bond. "I'm sorry," she added pleadingly, her mind echoing the apology as she sensed the Doctor's mental walls against her beginning to crumble and fall away once more. _Let me make it up to you ..._ she suggested silently. "Let's go somewhere - anywhere, you choose."

The Doctor shifted within her arms as he raised one of his hands to where Rose still gripped him tightly and wordlessly urged her to let him go so that he could at last turn and face her.

 _Just make sure that it's far, far away from planet earth and I'll make it up to you, I promise,_ she continued desperately as she watched him level a dark, weighted look on her. He was all ice-blue eyes and dark, furrowed brows again, but Rose could see the silent hurt lurking behind it all, and her heart ached to know that _she_ had been the one to put that look there.

 _I'm so, so sorry, love. Just tell me how to make this right again ..._ Rose begged quietly, her eyes silently pleading with him as she carefully watched each detail of his blank, unreadable expression.

It felt like she was forced to wait for an eternity before she finally saw the Doctor's lips slowly begin to curl up around the edges once more, though it wasn't exactly what Rose would have called a smile. He dropped his gaze from hers a moment later, but she still couldn't manage to tear her eyes away from his face as he slowly reached forward and took her left hand in his right and gently squeezed her fingers.

"I know just the place." He continued to avoid her gaze as he reluctantly allowed her full access to his thoughts once more. _Get dressed,_ he urged her as he dropped her hand and moved past her without another word. _It's been far too long since someone has taken you out on a proper date, Rose Tyler._

 _A date ...?_ Rose repeated curiously. _Are you serious?_

She hadn't been out on a date since ... Well, for far longer than she cared to remember. Back in Pete's World, her husband had been too sick, and here in her home universe, there always seemed to be some sort of disaster or another calling her and the Doctor's names.

 _Weren't you the one going on about it not too long ago?_ The Doctor reached forward and decisively flipped a few switches on the TARDIS console below. He quickly set their next destination before moving off without a backwards glance in the direction of the wardrobe room.

 _So? Are you coming or what?_ He had disappeared from view, but continued to mentally pull her along after him.

Rose had never said "no" to a request like that from the Doctor, and she certainly wasn't about to start now. She held on tightly to the small spark of hope that she could feel burning in her chest as she eagerly skipped down the console room stairs and hurriedly rushed after him. She was eager to see what he had in store for them next and she silently prayed that she hadn't irreparably disrupted their relationship for good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you are all still enjoying this fic. I wanted to make a note that I will now only be posting chapters once a week (most likely Sundays) in an attempt to free up my schedule a little more. I'm working on a few different original works at the moment, and they're taking up quite a bit of my free time.  
> If you'd like to support my past and future writing projects (both fanfiction and original works), you can leave kudos, comments, subscriptions, and bookmarks on my works here, or you can find me on Fanfiction.net, Wattpad, and Tumblr all under the name ChasingtheCosmos! Thanks! <3 <3


	15. Chapter Fifteen

The destination that the Doctor seemed to deem "just the place" for their unexpected and unplanned date appeared to be some sort of train. And not just any train, but the _Orient Express_. And not just _any_ Orient Express, but an Orient Express in _space_.

Rose took it all in with her usual expression of wide-eyed wonder, though there was an undercurrent of nervous tension that she couldn't quite seem to shake. She hesitantly searched the Doctor's thoughts and attempted to gauge his current emotions.

"Why are you smiling like that?" he asked her curiously as they stood near the doorway and stared out at the crowded dining car that he had led them to. When Rose turned to glance at the Doctor out of the corner of her eye, she could see that he was watching her as intently as she had just been searching his thoughts.

"Smiling like what?" she asked hesitantly.

"It's the sad smile. It's a _smile_ , but you're sad." The Doctor's own expression darkened as he continued to watch her. It seemed that he was steadily growing more and more frustrated with his inability to puzzle her out. "It's confusing. It's like two emotions at once. It's like you're _malfunctioning_."

"I'm not sad," Rose assured him lightly. Her hand curled tentatively around his elbow as she cautiously waited to see if he would push her away or not. When he didn't, she gently picked at the sleeve of the dark, fancy suit that he had donned for the occasion and added, "I'm just ... nervous."

Her hesitant declaration of nerves seemed to set off a fresh wave of anxious twitching for the Doctor. He sighed heavily and shifted awkwardly beside her. "I just thought this would be a good one to ..."

"Yeah. It is," Rose assured him, cutting off his hesitant words and flashing him a true, sincere smile. "It's a good choice."

"Yeah?" His blue eyes searched her expression warily as though he expected her to dart back in the direction of the TARDIS at any moment.

Rose's smile widened as she tightened her grip on his arm and gently urged him forward into the dining cart. _Come on, Doctor,_ she whispered quietly against his thoughts, _I seem to remember I was promised a date._

She quickly procured them each a sparkling glass of what was probably champagne (or, at least, a futuristic, alien-version of the classic Earth beverage). She hoped that it would be enough to loosen them both up enough to clear the air and allow them to actually have a pleasant evening out.

It didn't take long for the Doctor to go off on one of his long-winded, rambling explanations as he eagerly gazed out at the map of stars positioned just beyond the window that stood over the table that they had claimed as their own. Rose was only half-listening to him as she ran her gaze over his wide, excited eyes and the sharp-looking suit that he had donned for their special night out.

She supposed that she really should have known that he was taking this whole thing quite seriously when the TARDIS had gifted her with an elaborate, early-twentieth-century beaded dress and the Doctor had shown up back in the console room all done up in fine evening wear. She couldn't remember the last time she had seen him dress up for one of their adventures out, and she knew instantly that he had done it entirely for her benefit. She made sure not to waste the precious gift as she slowly drew her gaze over the sharp, handsome figure that he cut against the backdrop of the fancy, old-fashioned dining car.

 _I'm trying to tell you about Thedion Four, Rose,_ the Doctor reminded her as he silently pulled against her thoughts and attempted to get her to focus back on his detailed explanation of the long-dead planet. However, Rose could sense the pleased, smug turn that his thoughts had taken as he subtly returned her appraisal and let his gaze drop to her new dress.

 _You know, I'm beginning to suspect that the TARDIS isn't gifting me these outfits for_ my _benefit at all._ Rose primly sipped her glass of champagne and trained her gaze on the stars outside to give the impression that she didn't notice the way that the Doctor was now watching her as intently as he had been analyzing the black hole outside just a moment before. _It seems that every time she gives me a new costume,_ you're _the only one who gets any enjoyment out of it._

 _Well, you can't_ always _be teacher's pet,_ the Doctor teased silently. He subtly dropped his hand to her waist and let his fingers gently grip her side for a moment before casually returning to fiddling with the edge of his champagne glass once more.

Rose could feel her pulse spiking within her veins as she finally put the last of her doubts and fears behind her and determined to make the most of this night that the Doctor had so graciously gifted her.

However, no trip with the Doctor could ever be _completely_ without difficulties, and as word about a mysterious death and an eerie, folk tale mummy began to circulate through the rest of the passengers on board, Rose suspected that her impromptu date with her husband might have to be cut short. For that reason, she decided to waste no more time on dinner plans and instead quickly urged the Doctor to lead them back to their room for the night. She wanted to savor as much of the evening as she could before he inevitably led them off down the trail of some mystery or another.

The private car that the Doctor had procured for them was small and inherently intimate, but Rose decided to use those qualities to her advantage. She squeezed into the quiet space within and stepped as close to the Doctor as she could while still looking him in the eye.

"Thank you," she murmured quietly under her breath. She made sure to point out across their bond that the gratitude was for so many different things - not just this quiet evening planned specifically for her and another trip to see the stars. She was grateful for his forgiveness, for his patience, for his trust. She was thankful that they were still together after all of this time, and that he had at last fully opened up to her and let their telepathic bond be what it was always meant to be - a lifeline that connected her to the man who she loved most in all of time and space.

 _Over two-thousand-years out there wandering the stars,_ the Doctor mused silently as he gently cupped her face between his two hands and slowly let his eyes trail down to her lips, _you're still the only one I've never been able to say "no" to._

 _Over a hundred-years and two different universes,_ Rose agreed bemusedly as she quietly parted her lips and held her breath while she waited for him to cross the small distance between them, _there's never been anyone else but you._

The Doctor's eyes met hers for just a moment before he finally leaned in to kiss her, and Rose could sense that he continued to watch her even after her own eyes had slipped shut under the soft press of his lips. His touch was gentle but insistent as he slowly backed her up against the wall behind her and let their bodies become flush with one another. Rose eagerly returned his kiss and began to let her hands roam distractedly over his chest and shoulders.

The barest brush of the Doctor's tongue against hers was all the encouragement that Rose needed for their tender kiss to suddenly turn heated and passionate. Before long, they were both fumbling blindly in the direction of the bed. They spent the rest of their time in their private quarters losing themselves in one another and silently reaffirming their love for each other as they whispered all manner of secrets and promises and devotions into one another's thoughts to make sure that the other person knew beyond a doubt that they were never, ever going to leave.

At the end of it all, Rose ended up collapsed against the Doctor's chest, silently counting his heartsbeats and breathing in his scent as he distractedly ran his fingers through her hair and traced nonsense patterns over her skin.

"You know, I'm sure it's nothing," the Doctor muttered quietly. His voice rumbled pleasantly in Rose's ear and made her eyelids slip shut involuntarily as her heart overflowed with quiet adoration for him. "Nothing. Definitely. Sure. Ninety-nine-percent sure."

"Mmm-hmm," Rose agreed distractedly. She could sense the Doctor's thoughts running off down a million different rabbit trails all around them but she wasn't able to bring herself to chase after any one of them. "What are you ninety-nine-percent sure of?"

"Well, that's quite high, isn't it?" the Doctor amended with a weary sigh. "Okay, okay - seventy-five."

"Well, that's jumped quite a bit."

"Yes. That's not good, is it?" The Doctor's fingers distractedly drew numbers and calculations across the skin of her sides and shoulders.

"You want to go chase down the mummy, don't you?" Rose heaved a long, weary sigh against him. She screwed up her expression as she slowly stretched her limbs in an attempt to motivate herself into moving again. She could already tell by the pattern of the Doctor's thoughts that there would be no talking him out of this mystery. It was now just a matter of whether or not she would join him on his newfound adventure (as though that could _ever_ be in question).

 _Should have known this wasn't just some simple date ..._ Rose thought silently to herself as she slowly extricated her limbs from her bondmate's embrace. She made to get up and start rooting around the room for their abandoned clothes, but she came to a halt as she sat up on the edge of the bed and instantly felt the Doctor's warm arms snake back around her middle once more, effectively locking her in place. If the solid familiarity of his chest at her back wasn't enough to take her breath away, the tender kiss he pressed deliberately to the skin of her neck certainly was.

" _Yes,_ I'm interested in the creature that has the ability to kill someone in sixty-six seconds flat," he admitted quietly, his breath ghosting against her skin and making her shiver uncontrollably. "But _no_ , I didn't plan this." _I didn't plan any of it, really,_ he admitted silently through their bond. _I just knew that wherever we ended up, I wanted to be there with you._

Rose shifted her weight slightly so that she could turn and meet the Doctor's gaze. She flashed him a dubious look that was completely ruined by the small, self-satisfied smile that she could feel curling up around the edges of her lips. "You know, Doctor, this whole angry, scary persona you put on _really_ doesn't work when you go and say things like that."

 _Should have known you'd see right through me, precious girl._ He leaned forward to press his lips to hers once more. Just like before, what started as a gentle, sweet gesture quickly turned heated when Rose instantly melted back against him and the Doctor slowly urged her back so that he could over her and press her into the mattress of their small, borrowed bed once more.

However, before they could let themselves grow too distracted, Rose ran her thumb gently across the Doctor's cheek and silently reminded him that there was a monster on board who was currently hunting down and killing passengers, and that such a threat might need their attention.

"Have I mentioned lately that I love you?" the Doctor whispered as he pressed a hard kiss to the underside of her jaw. He silently thanked her for giving up her quiet night out for the sake of the other innocent lives on board. Without using words, he made it abundantly clear that he was so ridiculously proud of and pleased with her and that he could never in a thousand regenerations ever ask for anyone better.

Rose grinned as she pressed a final kiss to the corner of his mouth and then regretfully released her hold on him so that they could return to redressing and saving the day. "It could always do with repeating," she replied teasingly. "You certainly made me wait long enough the first time around."

"I love you," he whispered again. The soft look that he flashed her nearly undid Rose's resolve and sent her crawling back into bed with him again. However, she forced herself to remain firm as she silently reminded them both of the many innocent lives that still remained on board and the pressing need to keep them all safe.

Still, they had both been waiting quite a while to get back to this point, so she decided to indulge herself for just a moment more. She leaned in one last time to level her face near his and whispered, "Say it again."

"Rose Tyler ..." he began, his voice low and gravelly in a way that Rose simply couldn't resist. She closed the last small space left between them and claimed those last three, precious words with her lips instead.

They eventually did uncover the truth of the mummy and saved as many of the remaining crew and passengers as possible, but neither of them could ever come to regret the night that they had spent together making up for lost time and missed opportunities on the Orient Express.


	16. Chapter Sixteen

With Rose and the Doctor both attempting to avoid their inevitable return to Coal Hill School and the many questions still surrounding it, they slipped easily back into their routine of distracting themselves from the pressing matters at hand by throwing themselves into any disaster or crisis they could find.

Still, they stayed close to Earth in an attempt to at least _appear_ as though they weren't running from their problems. They ended up in the middle of Bristol, where they were forced to hunt down a group of aliens from another dimension that were slowly picking people off of a council estate. The aliens' dimensional meddling also meant that the Doctor and Rose had lost the function of their time ship. The Doctor was ended up trapped inside of a rapidly-shrinking TARDIS while Rose was left on her own to track down the source of the mystery.

"This is weird," Rose stated definitively as the Doctor carefully passed her his sonic screwdriver and psychic paper through the single, small opening that was left between them. "Wait, does this mean I'm you now?"

" _No_ , it _does not_. So _don't_ get any ideas!"

It had been a while since Rose had been forced to face an alien threat alone. With her bondmate tucked tight against her side and his thoughts humming just inside of her mind, it was difficult _not_ to get a little into character.

 _You're enjoying this way too much_ , the Doctor groaned as she led her new companion, Rigsy, on a search through the missing peoples' apartments.

 _And he is_ not _your new companion, by the way,_ he continued insistently. _You are_ not _bringing him back on the TARDIS with you._

 _So you're going to be giving me marks, now, are you?_ Rose asked irritatedly. _It's not the first time we've worked apart, you know. I know what I'm doing._

 _Just ... be careful,_ the Doctor replied nervously. _I don't like not being able to be there with you._

Rose wordlessly reassured him that everything was going to be fine while at the same time expressing her own remorse at not being able to have the Doctor's comforting presence constantly at her side.

However, her confidence at being able to handle the situation faltered somewhat when the TARDIS's song suddenly faded into silence on a weak, defeated whimper. She could feel the Doctor's desperation as reality began to collapse all around him. After that, it was simply a matter of Rose using their enemies' powers against them - a trick that she was proud to admit that she had learned from the Doctor over the years.

When they were finally reunited at long last, Rose could feel the dark turn to the Doctor's thoughts as he glared after the three remaining people who they had managed to save and silently recounted all of the ones that they hadn't.

"You saved the _whole world_ , Doctor," Rose reminded him quietly. " _Again_. It wasn't just them - it was all of us."

" _I_ didn't do anything," the Doctor insisted begrudgingly. He flashed Rose a small, humorless smile as he turned back to face her. " _You_ did." _You were brilliant,_ he added silently as he slowly met her gaze.

 _Learned from the best,_ Rose reminded him with a wide, satisfied smile.

 _No,_ the Doctor replied quietly. _No, Rose Tyler - no one has ever had to teach you that. You've always been brilliant._

Rose could feel her heart fluttering at his words, but she rolled her eyes teasingly in his direction. _Flatterer,_ she muttered wryly.

The Doctor responded with one of her favorite wide, boyish grins that did nothing at all to help regulate Rose's erratic pulse. He took her hand in his and led them both back into the TARDIS without another word so that they could seek out their next distraction.

\--------------------

When the Doctor and Rose landed again, it soon became quite clear that the TARDIS was refusing to allow them to outrun their problems any longer. A young girl in a Coal Hill uniform promptly greeted them and welcomed them into an impossibly thickly-forested Trafalgar Square.

"Are you the Doctor and Ms. Oswald? I came here looking for Ms. Oswald and her Doctor. Mr. Pink told me to," the young girl declared resolutely.

"Mr. Pink?" the Doctor repeated incredulously. His eyes immediately narrowed into a suspicious glare as he glanced from the girl, to the surrounding trees, and back again.

"Are you lost, dear?" Rose asked, bending down close to the child and attempting a slightly softer approach. "Could you tell us your name?"

"I'm Maebh," the young girl replied brightly. "You _are_ Ms. Oswald, aren't you? I thought that Mr. Pink was looking for you, but it wasn't him. It was just in my head."

"Maebh!" They all glanced up in unison when Mr. Pink himself suddenly burst through the foliage just ahead of them. A small group of children were following in his wake and staring up at the TARDIS with wide, curious eyes.

" _Clara_?" Danny added in quiet disbelief. He immediately seemed to forget about his lost pupil and narrowed his eyes instead on Rose and the Doctor.

"Danny!" Rose greeted him as brightly as she could, though her smile felt strained as she straightened once more to face him. "What are you doing out here?"

"I could ask the same of you! Where have you _been_?" Rose's smile suddenly felt even more forced as she nervously noted the group of children around them whispering scandalously and the Doctor's deep, poisonous glare that he was leveling on the two of them. Danny stepped closer to her and continued agitatedly, "What happened to you, Clara? You said you'd be right back to explain, and then you just ... _disappeared_ for weeks! We all thought that something had happened to you!"

"Sorry, Danny - really I am. Time just ... got away from me," Rose muttered lamely. She was unable to directly meet his eye as she awkwardly lied to him. Even if she _could_ properly explain where she and the Doctor had disappeared to, she wasn't about to divulge any information about the date on the Orient Express that she had shared with her husband in private. She was too ashamed to admit that the two of them had been avoiding Danny and Coal Hill ever since.

"When are you going to stop _lying_ to me?" Danny demanded, rolling his eyes at her and throwing his hands in the air in frustration. "Clara, we were really, _really_ worried! We called the police and everything, but they weren't any help."

"Danny, I'm _sorry_ ," Rose repeated earnestly, meeting his gaze evenly so that he would know that she wasn't lying this time. "That's the _truth_. But right now, we need to figure out what's going on here, don't you think?"

She had spent over a century with the Doctor, but all of a sudden Rose was nineteen again and having to explain to her mum why she had mysteriously disappeared for an entire year with no phone call or explanation as to where she had gotten off to. Rose had thought that when she left her remaining family behind in the parallel universe that she was done with having to constantly come up with these silly explanations and excuses, but it seemed that they simply came hand-in-hand with being a part of the Doctor's life.

Danny glanced warily over Rose's shoulder and his expression darkened as his gaze landed on the Doctor, who was still glaring at the two of them from beneath those severe brows of his with a menacing scowl twisting his features. "Don't know what you two think you can do about all of _this_ ," Danny murmured under his breath. He raised his gaze to glance pointedly at the thick foliage that was currently creating a thick green canopy over their heads.

"Luckily, I've got something for that." Rose grinned widely as she slowly backed up towards where the Doctor was still glowering at Danny with his arms crossed tight across his chest. "Everyone, _this_ is the Doctor," Rose announced loudly, quickly attracting the attention of the small group of children who were hovering loosely around them, "and he's going to sort everything out. Isn't that right, Doctor? It's what he does."

The Doctor finally seemed to shake himself out of his dark mood as he warily eyed the trees growing up all around them. "Well," he replied matter-of-factly, "having looked at things, I think, probably, the answer to that is no."

"He always says that," Rose assured the children confidently. "He's really clever."

"Doesn't _look_ very clever, Miss ..." one of the children muttered suspiciously as they watched the Doctor begin to dart from tree to tree and start carefully inspecting the bark and branches. Rose winced as they watched him reach out and taste one of them with his tongue.

"Yes, I agree," Danny piped up pointedly. "I think we should leave all of this for the professionals to deal with. Meanwhile, we need to focus on getting all of these kids _home_."

"Don't worry. It's a thing he does," Rose assured them all breezily, "he _pretends_ he's not interested, and then he has an idea. He's playing for time."

"'Time' ..." the Doctor repeated thoughtfully. He turned back to Rose and fixed a wide, unfocused gaze on her as his thoughts ran off ahead of him and skirted across the many dangerous possibilities that lay before them. "Interesting."

"See?" Rose insisted, flashing the entire group a bright, winning smile. "Clever kicking in."

However, the realization that the Doctor quickly landed on did nothing at all to reassure any of them, and they quickly discovered that they were in for far more than they had bargained for in their fight against the trees.

\--------------------

The Doctor and Rose stood high above her home planet and watched in silent awe as a giant ball of fire consumed the great, green orb below. It harmlessly engulfed the entire planet for a few moments before it burned up and quickly dissipated back into nothingness once more.

 _I'm so sorry, Rose,_ the Doctor muttered bitterly. They watched the oceans and land masses slowly begin to resurface through the green haze as the protective layer of foliage began to dissolve and fade away. _How many times have I made you watch your planet burn?_

Rose stepped forward and took his nearest hand firmly in both of her own, her fingers clenching his tightly. "It's your planet too, Doctor," she reminded him quietly. _And as long as it still needs saving, I plan to be there to help you._

She could feel the Doctor's thoughts flicker for just the barest fraction of a second back to Gallifrey, but he forcefully cut the thought off as he drew her close and buried his nose in her hair. He drowned his concerns in the soft familiarity of her scent instead. He pressed a light kiss to the skin of her temple and silently filled her mind to overflowing with a deep sensation of love and gratitude.

"Do you think you'll ever try and go back?" Rose asked curiously as she continued to stare down at the tiny world that she had once called home. She didn't need to speak the name of Gallifrey out loud for the Doctor to immediately understand the point to her question. He had expressed an interest in attempting to find his time-locked planet back before he had regenerated, but Rose had never been certain as to his true thoughts on the matter. Did he even want to go back? _Could_ he go back? Would he ever be able to face all of the people and problems that he had buried and left behind there?

"Nah, there's a reason that I left, you know," the Doctor reminded her casually, "it's terribly boring."

But their two minds were one through their telepathic bond, and Rose felt the Doctor's pain as her own as he thought back to the many terrifying possibilities that surrounded his home planet. Not only was he too ashamed of his own cowardice to attempt to return and face his problems head-on, but he was also reluctant to drag Rose back into the war and conflict that continued to surround his home. In fact, he was quite intent on keeping her as far away from Gallifrey as possible. No amount of nostalgia or homesickness would ever be enough to make him change his mind about that.

 _Besides,_ the Doctor reminded her, pointedly steering their combined, steadily-darkening thoughts into a more cheerful direction, _I already have all the home I'll ever need right here._

He squeezed her fingers to emphasize his point as they both took one last look at planet below. Rose leaned her head affectionately against his shoulder.

"We still have to go back down there, you know," Rose reminded him quietly. "We're not done yet."

"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked, confused. "Trees gone, solar flares over, Earth saved. Did I forget something?"

"Danny," Rose explained simply. "I think he's owed a few explanations, Doctor. I mean, we _did_ just ditch him the last time. We can't do that again."

"No?"

"No," Rose insisted. "Don't worry, you don't have to come. Not unless you want to, anyway. But I need to tell him goodbye, at least. I owe him that much."

 _I'll take you back and drop you off._ The Doctor sighed heavily in resignation as he slowly led her back into the TARDIS and closed the doors behind him. _But I am_ not _going to try and explain myself to that_ pudding brain.

 _Ah, Doctor - just as humble and forgiving as ever,_ Rose muttered wryly as he finally dropped her hand and circled around the console before her. _"Pudding brain" isn't any better than "ape", by the way,_ she added pointedly. _Aren't we past these silly little nicknames?_

 _Well, you certainly know how to pick them ..._ the Doctor responded moodily. He began flipping levers and pushing buttons to program their return journey to the earth below.

 _Well, I picked_ you _didn't I?_ Rose reminded him pointedly.

"Oi!" the Doctor protested, his gaze rising to glare at her from across the console. I _picked_ you, he insisted silently.

"Whatever you say, dear," Rose murmured appeasingly. "Whatever you say."


	17. Chapter Seventeen

It didn't take the Doctor long to pinpoint Danny's location, and the TARDIS behaved herself enough to get them to a place where they could easily cross paths with him. The difficult part didn't come until Rose was standing directly before the young man all on her own and awkwardly attempting to explain herself.

"First, let me say again that I'm really, _really_ sorry," she muttered earnestly. "I never meant to bring you into all of this, Danny. I think you're a really nice guy ..."

"Yeah, just not as 'nice' as your precious _Doctor_ , though," he interrupted. He flashed her a hurt look out of the corner of his eye as the two of them walked side-by-side through a sunny, picturesque garden. Rose knew that to any other passerby, the two of them might have appeared to be a young, attractive couple, out on a walk to enjoy the gorgeous day together. No one would ever have been able to guess that she was old enough to be his grandmother.

"Look, I'm sorry if I wasn't clear enough before, but ..."

"No." Danny heaved a short, weary sigh as he shook his head and looked away from her once more. "No, _I'm_ sorry. You were _very_ clear. I just didn't want to listen." Rose watched as his brow furrowed in thought and he added quietly, "I just wasn't expecting _you_ to be with someone like ..."

"The Doctor and I have been together for a long time," Rose interrupted him, wanting to cut off his sentence before he could say something that she knew would just make her angry. She just needed to get through this conversation and then she could leave this whole awkward situation behind for good. She wanted to clear the air and set things straight once and for all. It wouldn't do for the two of them to simply fall into another argument again. "Plus," she added with a teasing grin and a small, conspiratorial wink, "I'm older than I look."

"So how does that work, then?" Danny continued curiously. "Are you an alien, too? Or is it just him?"

"Who said he was an alien?" Rose asked defensively. Her habit of having to conceal the Doctor's true identity was making her cagey as she struggled to decide just how much information to reveal to Danny. She had put him through so much. She knew that he deserved answers, but there were just certain truths that weren't hers to tell.

"I'm not as stupid as I look, you know," Danny assured her wryly. "I managed to put the pieces together. So? How did you two meet? And what were you doing at Coal Hill School?"

"That's a ... long story," Rose admitted hesitantly. Leave it to Danny to ask the questions that she herself didn't even really know the answers to. "Basically, someone ... _called_ us. We still don't really know why ..."

"Is it an alien thing?" Danny asked nervously. "Is there an alien thing going on at the school? Are the kids safe?"

"Yes, of course! Everyone's safe," Rose assured him. She hoped desperately that she was telling the truth and not simply filling him with a sense of false hope. Until she figured out who the stranger drawing her to the Doctor was or what they wanted, there really wasn't any way to assure _anyone's_ safety - not even her own.

"So you were with him the whole time then, yeah?" Danny continued curiously, seeming content with Rose's somewhat over-confident reassurances. "All that time when you were missing, you were off running around with him?"

"Traveling - like I said," Rose agreed with a small, easy shrug. "That's what we do - we travel."

"But what about teaching?" Danny insisted. "How are you going to hold down a full-time job when you're constantly disappearing for weeks at a time?"

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that," Rose muttered dismissively. "I don't think I'm really cut out for the job - probably never was. I already told Mr. Armitage not to expect me again any time soon. He'll find another English teacher. Honestly, I think he was glad to be rid of me after I pulled that vanishing act on him."

"So you're ... leaving for good, then?" Danny asked quietly. His soft brown eyes reminded Rose sharply of the young Rupert Pink who she and the Doctor had met a few decades prior. She wondered if Danny suspected her and the Doctor's influence on his timeline, or if his memories of them really were locked away as securely as the Doctor had said that they were.

"No, not for good," Rose assured him quietly. "Never for good. The Doctor and I, we always come back." It wasn't exactly the full truth, but Rose felt encouraged to _make_ it true, and that gave her the confidence to continue. "I'm sure you and I will cross paths again."

Danny began to fidget nervously at her side as the two of them came to a halt at the edge of a street corner. He turned to face her, though his gaze couldn't quite seem to meet hers directly. "Would that ... be okay?" he asked cautiously. "I mean ... could we still be friends?"

"Of course we can!" Rose agreed brightly. "I'd like that."

"Really?" Danny asked skeptically.

"Yes, Danny." Rose paused to flash him a small, sincere smile. "Maybe someday I'll bring the Doctor around, too, and we could all do something together. I'm sure I could warm him to the idea one way or another ..."

Danny chuckled quietly as he slowly shook his head and finally met her gaze fully once more. "Sure. I won't hold my breath," he muttered wryly.

Rose smiled and offered him her hand, which he eventually took after just a moment's hesitation. Hes shook it in silent agreement of their newfound friendship. When they finally parted ways once more, Rose heaved a heavy, satisfied sigh as she watched Danny's back slowly retreating into the distance. He crossed the street before her and headed off back into his normal, human life. She really wished him all the best, and she hoped that she would be able to run into him again sometime soon.

However, all of her quiet daydreams about domesticity and a simple life were quickly set aside as the familiar whirring sound of TARDIS engines suddenly whispered to life behind her. Rose turned on her heel and beamed in the direction where she could feel her bondmate quickly approaching. However, before she could begin her search for a familiar blue box, her attention was forced back to the street by the sudden sound of screeching tires and loud, piercing screams.

When she whipped back around again, there was already a small crowd gathering around the front end of the car, which was parked at an unnatural angle in the middle of the street near where Danny had just been crossing a few moments ago.

Everything suddenly seemed to move into slow-motion as Rose felt her heart sink into her stomach and a thick lump formed in her throat.

_No ..._

_Rose!_ Her bondmate's call didn't attract her attention the way that it usually did. She walked hesitantly closer towards the crowd milling about in the middle of the street. She could already hear sirens blaring somewhere - someone must have already called for an ambulance.

_It's too late ..._

Suddenly, Rose was right back in 1987 all over again, watching her father die right before her eyes and knowing that there was nothing at all that she could do to stop it. He was dead and she was too slow, too selfish, _too late ...._

Rose was still moving slowly towards the car and the still, crumpled body that she could see splayed out before it. Before she could manage to make out any sort of detail, there was suddenly someone standing right before her, blocking her way.

 _Rose,_ the Doctor tried again, but she remained completely unresponsive. She stubbornly attempted to glance past his shoulder and get a better look at the devastation that she knew was sitting just behind him.

 _Rose,_ the Doctor insisted a third time. He stepped sideways to firmly block her line of view as he grasped her shoulders in his hands and shook her slightly in an attempt to get her to focus.

As soon as Rose's gaze reluctantly settled back on his intense blue eyes, she could feel the world around her rotating back to normal speed once more as time resumed its regular flow and the Doctor stared down at her intently.

 _It happened again,_ her thoughts cried out in desperate agony. _I was too late, and it happened again. I couldn't save him. I wasn't there ..._ She could feel tears overflowing from her eyes and streaming down her cheeks, but they felt oddly disconnected from her current state of distress. They were nothing compared to the sharp, intense hurt that she could feel deep within herself - the burning, searing pain that demanded all of her attention.

Danny had been so young, so full of life, he had been _right there_. And then, suddenly, he wasn't. And just like with her father and her mother and with everyone else that she could never save, Rose was forced to sit back and watch as another life was ripped away from her while she simply continued to move on.

 _Don't worry, love,_ the Doctor reassured her vehemently, his grip on her shoulders tightening as he stared down hard at her devastated expression and felt his own hearts twist in sympathetic agony, _time can be rewritten._

\--------------------

They tracked down Danny the same way that they had when the Doctor had been chasing after the invisible monsters hiding under the bed. However, Rose hadn't actually expected it to _work._ She was surprised when the time ship suddenly landed and the Doctor muttered quietly, "Well, the TARDIS thinks he's somewhere ..."

However, where the TARDIS seemed to think that Danny Pink was, was in fact a large, futuristic mausoleum with glass tanks that were filled with what looked like water and housed a series of old, stiff skeletons.

"Why?" Rose demanded quietly as she stepped forward and took a closer look at the nearest glass wall. The human-shaped skeleton within was sitting on a chair - the dark, empty eye sockets of the skull staring out at her blindly.

"I don't know," the Doctor admitted.

"Doctor, if this is where Danny is ..." Rose murmured hesitantly, "does that mean that ... he's going to look like this?" She eyed the glass tanks as they continued walking further into the mausoleum and couldn't suppress her grimace of distaste. It seemed like a strange thing to do to the dead. She couldn't imagine ever wanting to see a family member or loved one suspended forever in an underwater prison like that.

However, she only received more questions than answers as the Doctor quickly uncovered a hologram projection that explained the purpose of the institute that they had stumbled into and the group's mission statement - which was, apparently, to look after a person even after they were dead.

"Is it difficult?" the Doctor asked curiously.

"Is what difficult?" Rose replied in confusion.

"Reading all those words back to front." When Rose turned to shoot him a curious look, she could see that he was staring hard at something just beyond the hologram projection, his eyes narrowed in a dangerous expression.

Before Rose could investigate further, a woman dressed in a floor-length Victorian gown suddenly stepped through the light screen and placed herself directly in front of the Doctor. There was barely a breath of space left between them.

"Hello," she greeted him eagerly. "I hope you're well. How may I assist you with your death?"

"Well, there is, er ... no immediate hurry," the Doctor replied nervously as he anxiously shifted his weight between his feet and struggled to meet the woman's intent gaze.

"We were just browsing," Rose added helpfully. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion as the woman barely cast her a sideways glance in response. For whatever reason, the stranger seemed to only have eyes for the Doctor. She didn't seem to be content unless she was standing as close to him as possible.

" _Please_ take all the time you need," she assured them pleasantly. Her sharp gaze tracked the Doctor's movements carefully as he began to nervously pace around the room and struggled to find something to do to keep himself busy and distracted.

"Why don't you start by telling us what this place is?" the Doctor suggested. "Exactly what is 3W?"

"Apologies," the woman stated flatly. "Clearly you have not received the official 3W greetings package."

"Well, you know," the Doctor replied blithely, "it's just an unexpected ..."

But the rest of his off-handed remark about their sudden appearance was abruptly cut off as the woman in the long purple dress stepped forward and pressed the Doctor roughly up against the glass wall behind him. Rose was about to attempt to intercede when the stranger suddenly placed a long, firm kiss to the Doctor's lips. Rose suddenly found herself warring between the desire to step forward and rip them forcefully apart or to sit back and commit the Doctor's shocked, terrified face to memory for whenever she needed a laugh.

Before Rose could decide how she wanted to react to the situation, the strange woman finally stepped away from the Doctor once more and flashed them both a wide, crazed smile. "Welcome to the 3W Institute!" she announced eagerly.

The Doctor still had his eyes glued to the woman as though he were afraid that she might pounce on him again at any moment. There was something niggling at the back of his thoughts that he couldn't quite seem to shake. Something about this strange woman that set him on edge. There was something _wrong_ about this whole situation, he just couldn't quite manage to put his finger one it.

Rose silently reminded him through their bond that he was probably just overreacting to the unprecedented kiss and to stop gaping like a lunatic.

"Clara ..." he breathed quietly once he finally managed to recover his scattered thoughts once more, "is it over now?"

"I think it's over, yeah," Rose replied dryly, raising her brow at him in a sardonic look. _Why don't_ I _ever get greeted like that?_ she asked him pointedly over their bond. _It's only ever_ you.

The woman in the purple dress seemed to read Rose's mind as she turned and stated robotically, "You also have not received the official welcome package ..."

However, as soon as she turned on Rose and attempted to make her advances, Rose stepped out of her line of fire and assured her hurriedly, "Oh, I'm good, thanks. No worries."

"Who are you?" the Doctor demanded breathlessly. He was still attempting to recover himself as he leaned heavily against the wall behind him and eyed the stranger warily.

"I am MISI," the woman replied in a flat, even monotone. "Mobile Intelligent Systems Interface. I am a multi-function, interactive welcome-droid. Helping you to help me to help you."

"You're very, er ... _realistic_ ," the Doctor muttered awkwardly. He cast Rose a nervous, sidelong glance out of the corner of his eye.

Rose met his expression with a stern glare as she demanded silently, _Please_ do not _elaborate. And stand up, Doctor - you look like you just came face-to-face with a dalek fleet. She's a woman, not a crazed alien trying to kill you._

 _Easy for_ you _to say,_ the Doctor grumbled irritably. He finally stood back to his full height once more and stiffly brushed off the front of his jacket. You _weren't just snogged within an inch of your life._


	18. Chapter Eighteen

“I need to speak to whoever’s in charge here,” the Doctor demanded. He scowled darkly at the female droid before them and attempted desperately to regain some shred of dignity once more.

“I am in charge,” Missy insisted sternly.

“Well, who’s in charge of you?” the Doctor continued to press.

“ _I’m_ in charge of me,” the droid replied simply.

“Who repairs you?” the Doctor growled with a frustrated huff. “Who maintains you?”

“I am programmed for self-repair,” she explained in her robotic monotone. “I am maintained by my heart.”

Rose nearly stumbled backwards over her own two feet as the droid suddenly elbowed past her once more in order to stand directly before the Doctor. She grabbed his wrist and brought his palm up to rest against the center of her chest with a dramatic, eager gasp.

“Is everything in order?” Her tone low and suggestive in a way that made Rose’s blood begin to boil. The only thing that kept her biting retort in check was the shock of fear that she could feel shoot through her bondmate’s thoughts as the niggling sensation in the back of the Doctor’s mind suddenly began to grow and coalesce into a single, loud warning alarm.

 _Doctor?_ Rose asked curiously through their bond. _What's wrong?_

He didn't have an immediate response for her that made any sort of sense. He just continued to radiate a sense of growing discomfort that made Rose's skin itch and her heart beat unevenly in her chest.

“Who maintains your heart?” he breathed quietly. He met the droid’s gaze with a weighted expression on his face, searching the creature’s eyes for the answers to the many desperate questions that Rose could feel running through his head.

“My heart is maintained by the Doctor,” Missy replied with a sly smile.

Another spike of uneasiness echoed within the Doctor's mind that made Rose's stomach twist uncomfortably. He stared hard at the droid from under his thick, furrowed brows and asked, "Doctor who?”

The droid flashed him a pointed smirk before she twisted her head and called out rudely, “Doctor Chang!”

Missy was off without another word, bustling down the hallway of the eerie mausoleum without a backwards glance to retrieve whoever the mysterious Doctor Chang was. The Doctor, however, remained as he was, his hand raised in the air before him while he stared at it in wide-eyed, curious wonder.

 _Doctor?_ Rose tried again. She pulled forcefully against his thoughts as she slowly stepped forward and wrapped her fingers around his outstretched hand, gently bringing his arm back down to his side once more.

 _Be on your guard, Rose,_ he warned her silently. His fingers nervously squeezed hers as he turned and stared hard down the hallway after the welcome droid. _Something’s not right here …_

 _Doctor, what is it?_ Her bondmate’s nervousness was making her feel unbalanced and fidgety.

 _Do you feel it?_ he asked, suddenly turning to lock his intense blue gaze on hers as they continued to stand hand-in-hand before one of the watery graves lining the walls.

_Feel what?_

The Doctor gritted his teeth together as he mentally reached for Rose's presence in his mind and gently guided her towards the corner of this thoughts that were currently screaming a red alert at him. It was almost as though another entity was pounding against his mental defenses while at the same time stubbornly evading detection. It was like nothing that Rose had ever experienced before, and it made her shiver with a haunting sense of trepidation.

 _What is that?_ she asked curiously. _Is this some weird Time Lord thing?_

 _I don’t know yet,_ the Doctor admitted as he glared back down the hallway once more and set his gaze on the two figures who were now walking eagerly towards them, _but I intend to find out._

\---------------------

The room that the curious Doctor Chang led them to was a strange sort of lab filled with mismatched, posh equipment and yet another glass tank filled with what he referred to as “dark water”. However, that was really the least of Rose’s concerns as the young, bespectacled doctor explained to them the truth behind the three words that his institute was based on and the horrible reality of their situation began to settle over her in waves.

“Fakery!” the Doctor declared angrily, before Rose could get a word in edgewise “All of it - it’s a _con_ , it’s a racket!”

Personally, Rose was inclined to agree with him, but there was no denying the voice of Danny Pink that suddenly rang out through the room around them. He called her name in pained desperation as he attempted to reach across the expanse of death that lay between them and find her once more.

“Clara? Clara, are you there?”

“Danny!” she breathed in quiet disbelief. “I can hear you, is that you?”

However, before Rose could get any sort of information out of the strange, disembodied voice, the signal connecting them was suddenly disrupted and Danny’s voice faded into indiscernible white noise.

“This isn’t possible,” the Doctor reminded Rose quietly. “The dead _don’t_ come back.”

 _You sound pretty sure of yourself,_ Rose snapped in silent response as she whirled around to fix a glare in his direction. _I’ve seen you do far more than that before. How many times have you faced impossible odds and seen them through? How many times have_ you, _yourself, come back from the dead, Doctor?_

 _Rose …_ the Doctor attempted to reason with her.

However, his words were cut off as the signal was suddenly boosted and the connection reestablished. Suddenly, Danny’s voice was calling out for Clara again from the clear monitor on Doctor Chang’s desk.

“Clara, can you hear me?” he asked breathlessly.

“Yes, Danny, I can hear you,” she responded without a second thought. “Can you hear me?”

“Yeah, yeah, I can hear you!” he answered eagerly.

 _I don’t like this …_ the Doctor reminded Rose silently through their connection.

“What do I do?” Rose asked. She turned to meet the Doctor’s intent, blue gaze with an expectant look on her face. She wasn't sure what to believe in that moment, but Danny's voice was so clear and so eager to hear from her again. Rose found herself wishing more than anything that this could really be as simple and harmless as it seemed. She had seen far more ridiculous things during her time with the Doctor, after all. Just this once, couldn't things be easy for them? Didn't the universe owe them that?

 _Doctor, he’s there - that’s_ him, she insisted warily. _He could still be alive. We could still save him …_

The Doctor's responding sense of sympathy for Rose's current turmoil made her jaw clench in determination as she stubbornly refused to accept his soft, reassuring thoughts. She didn't want his sympathy right now, she wanted his support. She wanted his clear and honest opinion and then she wanted to sort this whole mess out and get to the bottom of what was going on here.

“Question him,” the Doctor ordered when he at last resigned himself to his bondmate's stubborn will with a small sigh. “Ask him questions only he’d know the answer to. Be sure.”

“And what are you going to do?” Rose asked hesitantly.

“I’ve got to check out those tanks,” the Doctor replied distractedly. _And that droid,_ he added. “There’s something that I’m _missing_ …”

 _Be careful,_ Rose warned him as he turned and commanded Doctor Chang to follow him out of the room and leave her alone with the monitor that was currently still projecting Danny’s panicked, fearful voice into the room around them.

 _You, too,_ the Doctor replied just as warily. _Be_ sure _Rose - don’t just hear what you want to hear. There’s something deeper going on here, and for whatever reason, it’s centering around you. Be cautious. Make_ sure _it’s him._

\--------------------

Unfortunately, no matter what Rose thought to ask, there was simply no way of being absolutely certain that the voice currently speaking with her was actually connected to Danny himself. In fact, as Rose continued to speak with him at length, she began to realize how little she actually knew about the man in question. How could she possibly be sure if it was really him or not?

The sensation of the Doctor’s rising panic on the other side of their mental connection certainly wasn’t helping matters, either. Rose could practically hear her heartbeat pounding in her ears as she attempted to calm her bondmate and reason with Danny both at the same time.

 _It’s Missy,_ the Doctor realized suddenly, the force of the revelation making it sound like he was shouting the words directly into Rose’s head. _It’s been her all along._

 _Doctor, what’s going on?_ Rose asked as she raked her hands through her hair and nervously bit her lip in consternation.

 _Cybermen._ The terror behind the single, horrifying word made Rose’s heart skip a beat in fear. _Cybermen and Time Lord technology. No, it can’t possibly be …_

“You’re a Time Lord,” Rose heard the Doctor mutter breathlessly through their connection as he looked the lady in the purple dress up and down with a sharp, assessing gaze.

“Time _Lady_ , please,” Rose heard Missy reply loftily, “I’m … _old-fashioned_.”

Rose shot to her feet without needing to hear another word. She whirled around in an attempt to chase after her bondmate, but she stopped short when she realized that there was a large, silver cyberman already looming over her. The dark water tank that had been sitting at her back was now completely drained and had left behind a single metal suit.

“ _Doctor_!” Rose called out desperately.

 _The center of London …_ the Doctor replied distractedly. _Hundreds of cybermen right in the center of London …_

 _Doctor, what are we going to do?_ Rose slowly began backing away from the giant silver monster that was currently standing motionless before her, its dead, black eyes staring straight through her.

The Doctor’s only response was a single, two-syllable name: _Master …_

It took Rose a moment to place the name, but the emotions that followed behind it and the memories that bubbled up from within her bondmate and overflowed through their connection were clear enough. She understood immediately who had been behind all of this - the person who had been pulling the strings from the very beginning, leading her and the Doctor together ever since she had returned to this parallel universe.

 _The Master?_ she repeated, her own terror quickly rising to match the Doctor’s. _How is that possible?_

She knew of the Master through conversations with the Doctor's duplicate in her parallel world, but even though they had been married for nearly seven decades, Rose had never been able to convince her husband to give her much more information about him (or _her_ ?) other than the name. The Doctor could go on for hours about different alien species ranging from the fascinating to the terrifying, but he never seemed to want to divulge much about his old friend other than to say that they grew up together and he ( _she_?) had been haunting the Doctor's travels ever since he left Gallifrey.

 _Rose, I’m so sorry,_ the Doctor replied desperately. She felt the connection between them waver as their combined, overwhelming emotions threatened to silence it completely.

 _Stay inside - stay_ safe. _I’m going to get us out of this,_ he reassured her vehemently.

 _Sorry, dear, but that’s never going to happen._ Rose squared off against the encroaching cyberman and raised her chin stubbornly into the air as she stared the creature down and refused to so much as flinch. _I’m coming to help._

Rose watched in silent trepidation as the cyberman before her slowly seemed to revive, it’s mechanical parts whirring slightly before it suddenly snapped its head up and pointed it’s weaponized arm threateningly in her direction.

“Stop!” she cried out, jolting in fear despite herself as she did her best to face off against the deadly mechanical creature looming before her. “You can’t kill me.”

“Incorrect,” the cyberman stated plainly.

“No, no, no, that would be a _very_ big mistake,” Rose insisted as she crossed her arms against her chest and raised an imperious brow at the thing. “You don’t know who I am.”

The cyberman paused only long enough to do a quick scan before it began advancing on her once more. “You are Clara Oswald,” it stated matter-of-factly. “You are human. You are unimportant.”

“Ha!” she huffed dismissively. “You might want to scan again, there, big guy. Clara Oswald is a cover story; a disguise. There is _no_ Clara Oswald.”

The cyberman paused once more as the weapon on it’s arm powered up and whirred to life. “Identify,” the cyberman insisted.

“Oh, you lot really _are_ slow, aren’t you?” Rose rolled her eyes condescendingly as she shifted her weight into a confident stance and shook her head at the creature. “I’m not Clara Oswald. Clara Oswald has never existed.”

“Identify,” the cyberman repeated.

“Have you got records of Canary Wharf in your databases? Do you have memories of the last time the cybermen tried to come to earth?” Rose continued as she strolled casually closer to the dangerous silver monster. “Ever wonder what happened to them?”

“Identify,” the cyberman commanded once more. Its robotic tone sounded even more threatening than normal as it matched her movements and took an intimidating step closer to her.

“I’m the Bad Wolf." Rose faced the cyberman and stared it straight in its dead, black eyes. “I’ve turned daleks to dust and pulled cybermen into a never-ending hell. I exist across all of time and space. I know everything that has and is and will happen.”

She tilted her head to the side and flashed the metal creature a sharp, feral grin. “Long time, no see,” she murmured threateningly. “Did you miss me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm half-way through a week-long vacation from work and I decided to attempt to churn out the rest of series 8 while I have the free time to work on it. It's my plan to write three more chapters to finish out the series, and then I will be moving this fic to "complete". I do plan to continue on and do "Last Christmas" and Series 9 at some point in the future, but for now, this fic is being put on hold while I focus on other projects.


	19. Chapter Nineteen

Rose could sense the Doctor's mind racing as he swiftly ran through the calculations of their current situation and chances for survival. It seemed to Rose that he was working at a far faster pace than usual, as though he were desperate to keep one step ahead of one of his oldest rivals.

Meanwhile, Rose's thoughts were racing just as fast as she tried to stay one step ahead of the cybermen's databases. She was currently trying to convince them that she could be of better use to them as a living pawn rather than a dead threat.

Suddenly there was a sharp sting of pain running through Rose's mental connection with the Doctor. She felt her breath catch in her chest as the bond between them faded and slipped through her fingers.

 _Guard the graveyards,_ he cried out as he quickly slipped into unconsciousness. _Rose ... stay safe ..._

Her lies to the cybermen were beginning to grow a bit thin as she felt a wave of panic wash over her that was both hers and the Doctor's combined. What had happened to him to make him suddenly pass out like that? How was she supposed to face this threat on her own without him?

"You are Clara Oswald," the cyberman before Rose insisted. Two others quickly joined the first and the three silver men all stared down at her with matching blank, sinister expressions.

"I'm _not_ ," Rose insisted through gritted teeth. "'Clara Oswald' is a construct. I exist across all of space and time - do you really think I would bother confining myself to a single, human life in the twenty-first century? I made this form and this name in order to help the Doctor. Destroy me, and I'll simply make another - and I'll keep on going forever and ever until I watch every single last cyberman empire crumble and fall away into dust."

There was a brief, confused pause before one of the cybermen announced, "This information cannot be confirmed."

"Go on - do another scan, if you want to. I've got all the time in the world, boys. You, on the other hand, do _not_. Because I already know what's going to happen next. The Doctor and I are going to _stop you_ and there's _nothing_ that you can do about it."

"Incorrect," a voice from behind Rose interrupted suddenly. When she turned, she was unsurprised to see a fourth cyberman was now approaching them. The creature was watching her with that same expressionless, immovable gaze as its compatriots. "You are Clara Oswald."

"Look, how many times do I have to _tell_ you ...?" Rose sighed exasperatedly.

"Your deception is intended to prolong your life." The cyberman came to a halt at her side and loomed over her menacingly. "You are Clara Oswald."

Rose opened her mouth to continue to argue, but before she could get a single word out, the cyberman at her side raised it's hand towards her and a jolt of electricity shot through her brain and immediately knocked her unconscious.

While her thoughts swam in a murky, half-dream state, Rose was distantly aware of the Doctor's presence in her head as he continued to fight to save the world and return back to her side once more. She could feel him reaching for her in an attempt to assess her current state. She reached back even in sleep, reminding him that she believed in him and knew that he would manage to come up with something and save the day in the end.

Behind all of it, though, there was something ... _else_. There, just on the edge of Rose's connection with the Doctor was that same, niggling sensation that she had been feeling ever since they had entered into the 3W Institute.

 _Doctor, what does it want?_ Rose asked groggily. Her exhausted mind shied away from the insistent mental annoyance as she struggled to find some semblance of peace.

 _Not to worry, love,_ the Doctor assured her confidently. _I'm working on it._

Rose was so tired that she nearly allowed herself to believe the easy bravado in the Doctor's thoughts. However, before she could let her guard lower too far, the strange intruder on the edge of the Doctor's thoughts swelled until Rose could feel the entity like pin pricks against her skin.

 _Wakey, wakey,_ a strange, unfamiliar voice called out to her. The forced, sing-song tone instantly had Rose jolting back into consciousness again with a startled gasp.

She had to fight to remember what was going on and what she had been doing before she had passed out as she blinked hard and forced herself to take deep, calming breaths. She tried desperately to regulate her heartbeat once more. She was instantly aware of the fact that she was no longer trapped in the 3W Institute and surrounded by cybermen. However, it seemed that she had somehow been transported to a graveyard instead - the exact place that the Doctor had warned her about. There wasn't a single living thing within view to tell her how she had managed to get there.

 _Doctor ...?_ Rose reached out warily to her bondmate as she narrowed her gaze on the tall, gray gravestones that stood in neat, orderly lines all around her.

 _Rose._ The Doctor's mind instantly embraced her with a wave of eager relief as he felt her conscious mind finally return to him. _Are you alright? What happened?_

She was about to reach out and ask him the same question, but all of her words died on her lips. Her thoughts fell into silence as she heard a rustling from behind her and turned to see an entire army of silver men slowly emerging from the graves all around her.

 _Doctor!_ Rose cried out in terror. _They're here - the cybermen. They're coming out of the graves ..._

 _Stay away from them,_ he commanded quietly. _I'm on my way. Just have to deal with ..._ Missy _first._

 _Doctor, how is this possible?_ Rose asked desperately as she watched the cybermen around her slowly beginning to reanimate. _How can the Master be_ here?

 _I don't know,_ he replied morosely. _I never know. They just keep coming back - over and over, no matter what I do. Gallifrey and everything else burned and it never made even the smallest bit of difference ..._

 _Doctor,_ Rose interrupted him gently. _We've faced worse odds than this before, remember? Just ... get here and we'll figure something out. You and me, just like we always do._

 _You don't know her, Rose._ The true spike of terror in the Doctor's thoughts nearly made her dizzy with terror. She had sensed fear from her bondmate before, but never like _this. You don't know what she's capable of. She destroys everything she touches ..._

 _Well she hasn't met_ me, _yet._ Rose straightened her spine and settled her gaze on the cyberman nearest to her, who was watching her with its dead, black eyes.

"Are you the one who brought me here?" she demanded coolly.

"Affirmative," it replied concisely.

"So you know who I am, right?"

"You are the Doctor's associate."

Rose threw her head back in a humorless laugh as she shook her head pityingly at the metal creature. "No, I'm not. I'm not his _associate_. I'm his _wife_."

The cyberman before her twitched as though she had slapped it. "Have you got any sort of Cyber-Internet in that tin head of yours?" he continued haughtily. "Look up what happens to you if you harm me."

"Where is the Doctor?" the cyberman insisted.

"I'm not telling you that, don't be daft," Rose replied through tightly-clenched teeth. "I would never, ever give up the Doctor. He is the closest person to me in this whole world. He is the man I will always forgive, always trust - the one man I would never, _ever_ lie to."

The cyberman before her was visibly shaking now. Rose twitched away from it despite herself as she watched it slowly raise its hand to its face. It carefully remove the blank, expressionless mask to reveal the mangled, contorted features of Danny Pink beneath.

"Danny ...?" Rose breathed in terrified confusion.

"Danny Pink is dead," he replied matter-of-factly. Rose could hear the unsure waver in his voice as he stared at her with a hooded, haunted expression. " _Help me_ ," he breathed in quiet desperation.

"Danny ..." Rose's head gently shook from side to side as she slowly looked him over. This simply wasn't _possible_ \- cybermen destroyed who a person was. As soon as they were wired into the suit, their emotions were inhibited and they became thoughtless, soulless robots. So how was she speaking to Danny Pink right now? As he said - " _Danny Pink is dead_ " ...

"Danny, I'm so sorry ..." she murmured. Rose knew that this wasn't the first time that she had spoken these words to the poor young man, and she was beginning to wonder why she had ever attempted to befriend him in the first place. It seemed that all she had ever done was hurt and betray him, and now he was suffering a fate even worse than death, all because of her.

"I need you to do something for me," he informed her haltingly. "I can't do it myself."

Rose took a cautious step forward as she watched him reach for the large, circular panel in the center of his chest. He removed it to reveal the emotional inhibitor that somehow hadn't been switched on yet. She was already shaking her head once again in terrified denial as he slowly raised his gaze back to her. "It's an inhibitor. It's not activated. I need you to switch it on."

"Danny, please ..." Rose muttered desperately. "Please, no. Don't ask me to do this ..."

"Please, Clara," Danny begged. "I don't want to feel like this." The fear and sadness in his eyes was so _human_ \- how could he possibly as her to take that away? But what other choice did she have? To suffer in this constant, never-ending state of agony was madness. She couldn't force Danny to go through that just because she didn't want to be the one responsible for killing him.

_Rose ..._

The Doctor's presence swelling in her head made Rose gasp past the lump in her throat. She felt something in her chest expand as she blinked past her tears and desperately latched onto his thoughts.

_I can't do it, I can't. Doctor, you have to help ..._

_It's Missy,_ the Doctor replied distractedly. It seemed that he was too lost in his own current dilemma to do much more than commiserate with Rose's current state of heartache. _It's always been Missy, pulling us together, leading us to_ this ...

 _Doctor ..._ Rose sighed gently against his thoughts.

_It was always her. She put us together, she brought you to me, she made this happen ..._

_Then she's even more stupid than she looks._ Rose pulled hard against his thoughts as she furrowed her brows and focused a determined gaze on the man in the silver suit who was currently standing in front of her. _If it really was her influence, then she doesn't understand anything. She doesn't know how the two of us make each other better - how we work together to overcome the impossible odds, how we always save the day in the end. She must not know the planets we've saved or the people we've rescued or the monsters we've defeated. Because if she did, then she never would have put us together in the first place._

 _Oh, Rose, my Rose,_ the Doctor sighed in awed wonder. He desperately embraced the hope and fury that she was currently pouring into their mental connection. _You are more than she could ever be in all of her regenerations combined._

The third, unwelcome entity on the edge of the Doctor's thoughts gave a twinge of self-righteous reproach at that, but the Doctor didn't pay it any mind as he continued to flood Rose's mind with devoted affection and breathless awe. _Don't do it,_ he commanded gently. _Don't turn off Danny's emotions. I'm coming. You're not doing this alone._

 _Together,_ Rose agreed with a quick, determined nod. _Just like always._


	20. Chapter Twenty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been eagerly waiting for Missy to come back on the scene. Chatty, sarcastic villains are my absolute favorite thing to write! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

The Doctor did eventually join Rose in that large, eerie graveyard. However, he accomplished the feat using far more theatrics than Rose would have liked.

She greeted him with a glare as the TARDIS materialized nearby and he slowly stepped out from it with a sheepish expression on his face. "Don't you _ever_ think of doing that again," she hissed dangerously.

 _Yes, dear ..._ he murmured obediently. However, she could feel his hearts still pounding with adrenaline from the death-defying fall that he had just managed to survive. It might not have phased him much, but Rose wanted to make sure that he knew not to make a habit out of it.

Danny didn't allow their bickering to continue for very long before he forced their gazes back to him and the most pressing matter at hand. "Help me ..." he murmured desperately.

The Doctor didn't need to be asked twice. He immediately stretched his lanky limbs and began to circle the cyberman who was currently wearing the face of the kind, gentle maths teacher who Rose had befriended. The two men locked eyes with one another and Danny fidgeted before him in a very un-cyberman-like fashion. 

"I had a friend, once," the Doctor murmured distractedly. "We ran together when I was little, and I thought we were the same, but when we grew up, we weren't. Now, she's trying to tear the world apart, and I can't run fast enough to hold it together!"

His gaze dropped to the open panel in the center of Danny's chest and he raised his hand tentatively as though to touch it. "The difference is _this_ ," he whispered. "Pain is a _gift_. Without the capacity for pain, we can't feel the hurt we inflict."

"Doctor." Rose interrupted by stepping up between the two men. She had to bite her lip to keep the tears pricking at the backs of her eyes from falling. "Just do it. It's his life - it's his decision. We have to do what he wants."

"Clara, if you succeed, he will snap you," the Doctor insisted urgently. "Then he will step over your broken body and break another and another and another - he will never stop."

Rose let out a choked, pained laugh as she slowly shook her head at him. "You think I'm afraid of one, single cyberman? With you standing right there and the two of us back together again?" She raised her lips at him in a forced smile as she whispered confidently, "Nah. I back us every time, Doctor."

The Doctor didn't make any sort of response to that other than to level a dark, assessing glare at her. However, she could feel his thoughts warming slightly in the back of her mind as he eagerly accepted her silent promises of hope and victory. He filled her thoughts with all of the pride and love that he had for her in return.

"What's the plan?" he finally asked, turning his glare back on half-human man standing before them. "Danny, I need you to tell me - what are the clouds going to do? You're part of a hive mind, now - just look."

"I can't see much," Danny admitted after a moment's pause.

"Look harder," the Doctor insisted desperately.

"I can't see properly, because this needs activating." Danny reached up and gestured towards the open panel in his chest. "If you want to know what's coming, you have to _switch it on_."

"I need to know ..." the Doctor murmured helplessly. His desperation rose up and flooded the bond that connected his mind to Rose's. It filled her with all of his fear and anxiety as he weighed their options and outcomes. "I need to know ..."

 _Let me ..._ Rose offered silently. She stepped forward and gently wrapped her hand around the Doctor's wrist where he was clutching his sonic screwdriver hard enough to turn his knuckles white.

 _No ..._ the Doctor refused vehemently. _I can't let you. I won't turn you into a killer, Rose._

 _Well, you can't do it,_ Rose reminded him pointedly. _You're no killer, either._

The Doctor fixed her with a weighty look as centuries and millennia of regret and sadness rolled through him and overflowed into her mind. Rose knew that he had taken more lives than he could ever even count, whether purposefully or not. However, she pushed all of that anger and self-recrimination out of her mind as she took a step closer to her bondmate and pointedly slid her fingers further down his arm. She let her grip settle on the handle of the sonic screwdriver in his hand and gently pried it from his loose fingers.

 _You are not a killer, Doctor,_ she repeated confidently. _And you will not be adding the weight of Danny's life to your consciousness. This one is on me. Let me do it._

She knew that the Doctor could sense her conviction and understood that there was no way of changing her mind or stopping her. Still, he turned his back on her so that he wouldn't have to watch his bondmate turn into a killer. Rose could see the defeated slump to his shoulders and feel the wild, terrified turn of his thoughts, but she locked her jaw as she turned back to Danny and steadfastly raised the sonic screwdriver to point it at the emotional inhibitor in his chest.

"I'm sorry, Danny," she repeated once more. Her tears finally broke loose and began to run down her cheeks as she looked into his desperate, pained gaze. "For whatever it's worth, I'm really, _truly_ sorry."

"Me, too," Danny sighed warily. His voice caught on his own tears as he faced her bravely and prepared himself for death - a true, proper death that would last, this time.

"Ready?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah."

"Goodbye, Danny."

"Goodbye, Clara."

The fake name stung more than it had in a long while, as Rose realized that this man who didn't even really know who she was was putting his life in her hands and asking her to do the worst possible thing imaginable and end his life for him. Rose gritted her teeth together as she pressed the activation button on the sonic screwdriver and felt something deep within her break with a sharp, twisting snap.

Rose's arm dropped limply back to her side in defeat as she watched Danny's pained expression suddenly go blank. His emotional inhibitor slowly activated and he finally turned into a true cyberman. The Doctor rushed past her before she could fully recover from this horrifying realization and began questioning him immediately.

"Danny, if you can hear me, if you're still there, what are the clouds going to do?" he demanded desperately.

"The rain will fall again," Danny explained in a flat, unfeeling monotone. "All humanity will die."

"And rise again as cybermen," the Doctor breathed in quiet terror.

"Correct," Danny agreed simply.

"How do we stop it?" the Doctor continued.

"We cannot be stopped."

Rose knew that the Doctor had more questions for the cyberman who had taken control of Danny's dead body, but before he had the chance to ask them, they both turned as a sharp, zapping sound rang out through the quiet cemetery behind them. The Doctor and Rose turned in unison to see the apparition of Missy descending from the clouds like a dark approximation of Mary Poppins.

"Oh, that was _brilliant_!" she squealed delightedly. "Oh, I love the telly here, but did you see _that_?"

She skipped closer to them and flashed Rose a dramatic, pouting look. "Oh, _Clara_ , you poor thing - you must feel like death! Let me pop away the pain ..."

She reached for a device at her side, but the Doctor was between the two of them in an instant. He snatched the small hand-held from her grasp and tossed it to the ground well outside of her reach.

"Don't you dare," he snarled dangerously. "Don't you think about it!"

"Oh, sorry, hon," Missy sighed warily, "I'm just getting a bit carried away. I mean, I've waited so long to meet little Miss. Clara, you just have to excuse me."

"Pleasure." Rose narrowed her eyes on the female Time Lord in a reproachful glare.

"Been chasin' you a long time, doll." Missy smiled slyly despite Rose's poisonous expression and the Doctor's fuming anger. "Knew you'd be worth the wait."

"Stop it," the Doctor growled lowly. "Leave her alone."

"No need to be so _rude_ , dear," Missy insisted teasingly. "I know you don't like introducing me to your friends, but I thought for _certain_ you'd have the decency to bring your _wife_ home to meet me."

"Seems you have me at a disadvantage," Rose reminded her. She kept her gaze as level as possible as she took a confident step closer to one of the Doctor's greatest enemies. "Heard all of the stories, of course, but never had the pleasure of actually meeting you myself. The Master, wasn't it?" She gave the other woman a pointed once over before she murmured, "It appears you've had some work done."

Missy threw her head back in a raucous bout of laughter as she shook her head in Rose's direction. "Oh, I can see why he likes you." She flashed the Doctor a cursory glance as she added, "Yes, I think I've chosen _quite_ well, though you're certainly not one to talk about having 'work done', my dear."

Missy paused to raise her hand into the air before her. Her eyes took on a far-off, dreamy look as she whispered dramatically, "'Call me but love, and I'll be new baptised; henceforth I never will be Romeo ...'" She dropped her hand back to her side and her lips curled up into a cruel, sneering grin as she leveled her gaze back on Rose again.

"Never really cared for Shakespeare much, myself, but I know the Doctor could never resist a sonnet. Just like he could never resist _you_."

"I get it," Rose assured her tersely, "I don't need you to recite the whole play, thank you."

"Well, it's not exactly a ' _play_ ', now, is it?" Missy sighed exasperatedly. "Technically it's a _tragedy_."

"So what's it got to do with us?" The Doctor's ice blue eyes were glaring daggers as he warily watched his old friend tempt and tease his bondmate.

"Well, you have to admit it's rather fitting, isn't it?" Missy replied. "Your whole life has been one great big tragedy, hasn't it, Doctor? I did try to keep it to theme ..."

"What are you talking about? What's your hand in all of this?" Rose demanded. "Why were you leading us together all this time? What was the point behind it all?"

"So many _questions_ , goodness me you're starting to sound just like _him_." Missy sighed and rolled her eyes dramatically. "Though, I've heard that's what marriage will do to you ..."

"How long?" the Doctor insisted deliberately. His tone took on a dangerous quality as he glared hard at the other woman. "How long have you been pulling the strings?"

"Now _there's_ a tragedy worth telling!" Missy gasped eagerly. She cleared her throat loudly and took on another dramatic pose before continuing, "Once upon a time there was this poor little human girl, you see? Her life was just so dull and boring that she could barely stand it - trapped in a time and place where she was unappreciated, unloved, unwanted. But then she met a man with a magical blue box and he showed her the universe! Took her all throughout time and space, getting his timeline all caught up in hers. But then ..."

Missy's eyes widened as she breathed a small, excited gasp, then let her expression fall into another dramatic pout. "They were separated!" she murmured sympathetically. "Poor Romeo had lost his Juliet and there wasn't a thing that they could do! But then ..." her eyes flashed again as a wide, manic smile stretched over her features, "the _big bad wolf_ came howling."

"What do you know about that?" Rose hissed defensively. She felt her hands clench into two angry fists at her sides.

"Oh, I know enough," Missy bit back tersely. "Our dear, sweet Juliet took the entire time vortex into her head - it was a bit difficult for a certain devilishly beautiful and dangerously clever Time Lady to ignore ..."

"You're not _seriously_ suggesting that _you_ were responsible for the Bad Wolf?" Rose replied incredulously.

"No, of course not," Missy stated loftily. "That was all you, my dear. I simply ... embraced the fortuitous opportunity that you so _graciously_ presented so that I could grant my dear, old friend the best birthday gift he could ever receive ..."

Missy gasped yet again and raised her shoulders up to her ears. She flashed the Doctor a wide, eager smile. "Tiny bit pleased?" she squealed delightedly.

When the Doctor did nothing but continue to watch her with a dubious glare, Missy sighed heavily and rolled her eyes at him. "Oh, _go on_ \- crack a smile! I want to see if your eyebrows drop off."

"So you've been pulling the strings since the dalek asylum," the Doctor surmised slowly. "Making sure that Rose made it back to this world - back to me."

"Yes, and you could show a _bit_ more gratitude about it," Missy muttered sarcastically. "But fine - if your _wife_ isn't a good enough of a present for you, I do have one more birthday surprise."

"Oh?" the Doctor asked.

"Cyberdears!" Missy turned and called loudly over her shoulder. "Time to show yourselves off - go on, now, like we rehearsed ..."

The Doctor and Rose watched in wide-eyed, open-mouthed shock as the mass of cybermen around them all turned on the spot. They aligning themselves directly with Missy's orders and followed her commands with robotic, jerky movements.

"There," Missy stated definitively when they all came to a standstill around her once more. "Now don't say I never did anything for you, _Mr. President_. One Ms. Rose Tyler and a whole army of cybermen at your disposal - what more could a man ask for?"


	21. Chapter Twenty-One

Rose and the Doctor were forced to sit and watch as the entirety of Missy's plan was made known to them. The army of silver men surrounding them suddenly bowed down and submitted themselves to the Doctor's will. Rose could feel her bondmate's thoughts racing as he fought to puzzle out what Missy's end game in all of this was. The Master never just ceded control - it wasn't in their nature. There had to be something she _wanted_ ...

"Why are you doing this?" the Doctor pleaded desperately.

"I need you to know we're not so different!" Missy shot back defensively. "I need my friend back! Every battle, every war, every invasion - from now on, _you_ decide the outcome." She tilted her head at him in a challenging manner as she murmured, "What's the matter, Mr. President? Don't trust yourself?"

And the truth was that he didn't. Rose would have been able to sense the Doctor's indecision even if she hadn't been mentally linked with his thoughts. He had been forced to face more hard decisions than he cared to count. He was no longer certain if he could trust himself to make the right choice anymore.

But a manic smile broke out over his face when realization dawned on him and he suddenly understood that he didn't have to. The Doctor's mind flooded with relief and excitement as his own plan began to fall together. He realized that he had a way to stop Missy after all.

"I don't need an army," he stated definitively as he glared back at the female Time Lord with absolute victory glowing in his blue eyes, "I never have - because I've got them." He made a wide, sweeping gesture with his arm to include Rose, the surrounding cybermen, and the entire empty graveyard around them. "Always them - the people of this world. Because love - it's not an emotion. Love is a _promise_."

Without another word, he tossed the control bracelet that Missy had slipped onto his wrist to the cyberman standing nearest to Rose - the one who still wore Danny Pink's face. The device slipped easily around his arm as though it had been made just for him.

"You didn't notice, did you?" the Doctor continued eagerly. "While you were doing all your silly orders, while you were showing off - the one soldier not obeying."

"The rain will not fall," the Cyber-Danny stated robotically. He further secured the thing around his wrist and turned to glare at Missy with as much anger and hate as an emotionally-inhibited cyberman could muster. "The clouds will burn. I will burn them."

"How?" Missy asked challengingly.

"I will burn," the Cyber-Danny declared.

Rose could sense the Doctor's pride for the young man swell through their bond, though it was nearly overshadowed by the great sense of impending loss that he felt as the Cyber-Danny turned to face his fellow soldiers and started barking out orders to them. Rose was forced to sit back and watch helplessly as Danny turned and offered her one last parting goodbye before he and the rest of the silver men ascended into the clouds above them. Suddenly, the skies over London were burning, just as he had promised. She understood that it was for good, this time - Danny Pink was gone.

 _Burned, totally burned, burned to nothing ..._ The Doctor's thoughts cheered victoriously as the dark clouds overhead cleared and the sun shone down on them once more.

When he caught Rose's sharp sensation of unamusement, he turned to face her with a sheepish expression. _Sorry ..._ he amended quietly.

"Ten-zero-eleven, zero-zero by zero-two," Missy interrupted them. She took on that cold, robotic tone that she had used when she had still been pretending to be a welcome-droid back at the 3W Institute.

"What did you say?" Recognition pricked sharp against the Doctor's thoughts.

"The current coordinates of Gallifrey," Missy explained simply. "It's returned to its original location, didn't you ever think to look?"

"You are _lying_!" he insisted vehemently. However, Rose could feel the hope that bloomed deep within him and threatened to choke out all other reasonable thought. He had been distracting himself for a while, now - but it seemed that he had never truly been able to put his home planet behind him, no matter how hard he tried to convince himself otherwise. He was still just as desperate as ever to find out whether his impossible plan to save Gallifrey had actually worked or not.

"We can ... we can go together!" Missy's voice was desperate now. It was as though she knew that she was pleading for her life as she faced off against the Doctor's deep sense of distrust, hurt, and rage that was boiling in his thoughts and seething just behind his ice blue eyes. "Just you and me, just like the old days!" she added hopefully.

"You'd be clapped in irons," he reminded her sternly.

"If you like."

 _Doctor._ Rose pulled against her bondmate's thoughts and gently reminded him of the brief moment of victory that he had experienced just a few moments ago. _Just leave her. Let's go._

 _I can't,_ the Doctor insisted quietly. _She has to be stopped. I can't just walk away. She's too dangerous ..._

 _Please, love,_ Rose begged him silently. _Please, no more death. We have what we need, and she's got nothing. Let's just go ..._

The rest of Rose's pleas were cut off on a quiet, surprised gasp as she suddenly felt the third conscious mind on the edge of the Doctor's thoughts pulling violently against him. It was like a jealous child who wanted all of the attention focused on herself.

"He's right, you know." Missy lifted her chin high into the air as she smirked at the pair of them. "As long as I'm around, this planet isn't safe. And, even more important, _you_ won't be safe." A wide grin stretched over her features and suddenly Rose could feel the other Time Lord at the edge of her own thoughts, pushing insistently against her mind and making her wince with pain.

 _You know as well as I do that he won't let that stand,_ Missy whispered directly into Rose's head.

"Stop it," the Doctor growled dangerously. He stepped forward and grabbed Rose's hand, shielding her with both his body and his mind as he quickly constructed a mental barrier between her and Missy.

"Oh, you never were very good about sharing your toys," Missy sighed warily. "But never mind about that, give a dying girl one last request."

The Doctor made no response other than to fix her with an icy glare as his hand tightened defensively around Rose's. She could sense that his resolve hadn't changed in the slightest. In fact, Missy's ruthless invasion of Rose's mind had only served to further his conviction that his best friend needed to die if he was ever going to have a chance at keeping his bondmate safe.

"Say something nice," Missy drawled teasingly. She was still smiling that same feral grin, but Rose could see the fear in her eyes as she, too, realized that the Doctor's decision would not be swayed.

The Doctor's scowl fell into a look of helpless defeat. He shrugged his shoulders at his friend and murmured quietly, "You win."

"I know." There was no victory in Missy's tone as she closed her eyes and quietly prepared herself for the Doctor's judgement.

However, before either of them had the chance to make another movement, a bright blue blast from somewhere behind them shot just past Rose's shoulder and connected with the very center of Missy's chest. It turned the Time Lady into atoms, which floated away in the breeze and disappeared before their eyes.

The Doctor and Rose turned around with matching expressions of open-mouthed shock to see a lone cyberman still standing amongst the gravestones. His arm was slowly lowering back to his side as his weapon powered down once more.

"What?" the Doctor breathed in quiet disbelief.

"It's another one of the cybermen," Rose murmured quietly. "Looks like he stayed behind for some reason."

"Perhaps he had one last duty to fulfill."

Rose could feel the Doctor's thoughts settling with a sense of resigned realization. When she turned to flash him a curious look, she saw that he had his hand raised to his head in a salute. He nodded in respectful recognition of the last, lone cyberman. She didn't get the chance to ask any questions about what was going on before whoever it was who had been encased within the silver armor ascended up into the sky to join his brethren. The Doctor lowered his hand back to his side once more in a sign of dismissal.

 _It's over,_ the Doctor murmured quietly. His utter exhaustion nearly spoiled the small amount of relief that Rose could feel settling over him. _It's really, finally over._

Rose knew that his words were a lie, but she didn't bother to contradict him. She realized that, for once, the false hope was for the Doctor's sake and not her own. He really, _really_ wanted for this to be over. He wanted to go back to normal and pretend like none of this had ever happened. He wanted to erase the coordinates for Gallifrey out of his mind and bury the sense of loss that he felt over the death of his oldest friend deep within himself where he wouldn't have to be bothered by it ever again. He wanted to take Rose's hand in his and lead her back into the TARDIS. He wanted to forget about everything that wasn't running and distraction and basic survival.

However, Rose knew from experience that it wasn't healthy for the Doctor to try and escape his problems, and he knew from experience not to attempt to lie to her and claim that everything was fine.

That's why, when they finally returned to the TARDIS and the Doctor forced himself to enter those old, familiar coordinates into the navigation system, he didn't try to hide from her the sense of rising fear within him. When the TARDIS obediently announced their arrival at the destination Missy had guided them towards, he didn't conceal his nervous apprehension as he stared hard at his ship's doors and steeled himself for what might lie beyond them. When he did eventually open those doors and they found nothing but emptiness and void waiting for him outside, he didn't try to soften the crushing blow that he felt as it filled Rose's mind and made her knees weak with heartbreak.

She felt rage boiling inside of him, threatening to swallow him completely. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms tight around his middle and refused to let him lose himself in it as she filled his mind with as much gentle calm as she could muster.

 _I'm sorry, love._ Silent tears tracked down her cheeks and she buried her face in his jacket in despair. Rose cried in the way that the Doctor couldn't as her heart overflowed with aching sympathy for the man who she loved. _I'm so, so sorry._

The Doctor didn't respond to her with words, but she could hear the desperate cry of his hearts as the loneliness inside of him mirrored the void that they had witnessed waiting for them outside of the TARDIS doors. His memory was replaying for him on an endless loop the last, shining moment when his mind had been filled with an entire telepathic race, and the horrible, unbearable silence that had consumed him when they had all suddenly been ripped away from him and his world had gone silent.

Rose shushed him as gently as she could. She attempted to fill all of the empty spaces in his mind with her own consciousness, but they both knew that it was a useless endeavor. No matter how close Rose and the Doctor were, one bond would never be enough to make up for the lack of an entire species.

They sat like that for nearly an hour. Neither of them said anything out loud or telepathically as they simply attempted to pick up the Doctor's shattered pieces and put him back together again. Finally, at long last, Rose could feel his arms rising stiffly and folding around her shoulders. He was slowly returning to himself and quietly allowing himself to be comforted. His movements were still awkward and uncomfortable, however, and Rose could sense how he longed to fidget away from her embrace.

"Why don't you like hugging, Doctor?" Rose whispered. Her arms tightened around him in an attempt to hold him still and force him to respond to her.

"Never trust a hug," the Doctor murmured quietly, "it's just a way to hide your face." His voice came out sounding thick and rough, as though he really had spent the last hour shouting his rage and desperation out loud instead of simply sitting there in silence and letting it consume him.

"You never used to mind," Rose reminded him. She shifted her grip and gently ran her fingers up the back of his neck and into his hair in the way that she knew this body liked.

"Used to be pretty good at hiding," the Doctor agreed. "Got tired of it after a while." Rose was pleased to note that his tone had gone a bit breathless as his thoughts quietly groaned in the back of her mind. He instantly melted under her touch. 

"What changed your mind?" Rose let her fingernails run over his scalp in repetitive, comforting patterns.

 _Do you really need to ask?_ He buried his nose against her neck and breathed deep, allowing himself to set aside his own wallowing misery and lose his thoughts in her own for the time being.

Rose stepped back just far enough to be able to meet the Doctor's eye. She was unable to hide the soft smile turning up the edges of her mouth as she gazed up at her bondmate in adoration. "You have to admit, though, Doctor," she murmured quietly, "the hugging is pretty nice sometimes."

There was a gentle amusement in the Doctor's thoughts, but his expression remained stonily serious. He looked straight into her eyes and slowly shook his head back and forth in dissent. Rose felt as though she were drowning in his deep blue eyes as his gaze raked greedily over her features. _Not as nice as this,_ he reminded her silently.

The intense, reverent way that he was looking at her made Rose's knees feel weak despite the fact that he still hadn't even barely touched her.

 _You've got a point, there,_ she agreed. Her thoughts somehow managed to come out sounding breathless despite the fact that there was no real breath behind them. She nervously licked her lips and swallowed past the sudden lump in her throat as her own eyes took in the familiar features of the man she loved.

 _I'm afraid your view might not be as grand as mine,_ the Doctor murmured wryly. One of his severe eyebrows twitched up in a sardonic look as he continued to silently take in each detail of her features.

Rose's lips turned up in a grin again as she continued to watch him with from beneath her heavily-lidded eyes. _Oh, Doctor,_ she sighed sarcastically, _you have no idea._

She resumed letting her fingers trail against his scalp. She filled his thoughts with all of the utter adoration that she felt as she gazed up at him fondly. She refused to allow a single trace of doubt to remain in his thoughts as she leaned up onto her toes and pressed a lingering kiss to his lips. She made sure that he knew that she loved each detail of this new face of his and wouldn't trade them for anything.

 _You're impossible,_ he whispered, though his tone was more reverent than accusatory.

 _No more than you,_ she insisted firmly. _Now, where shall we go next? I vote for someplace sunny and warm - maybe a beach. What do you say?_

 _I say you're brilliant._ The Doctor's head tilted so that he could deepen their kiss. His arms tightened around her and he flooded her mind with various images of her wearing different sundresses and bikinis.

 _Alright, that wasn't exactly what I was imagining,_ Rose teased, _but I could be persuaded._ Her lips turned up into another grin and she breathed a small chuckle of laughter into the Doctor's mouth.

 _I'll get right on that, then,_ he agreed as he tantalizingly traced her tongue with his own.

 _Oh, Doctor._ Rose pulled away and felt her grin continue to stretch across her features. "No persuading necessary," she reminded him quietly. "You had me at 'run'."

And even though Rose knew that their conversation about Missy and their hunt for Gallifrey were both far from over, she knew that this, at least, they could do. She and the Doctor had been running for far longer than either of them could accurately measure at this point, and, if the universe was content to let them have it their way, they would continue on far into the future, as well. Because no matter how many times the daleks and the cybermen and the Time Lords all came and went, as long as the Doctor and Rose Tyler were in the TARDIS together, then they could face anything that the universe decided to throw at them.

 _Together,_ the Doctor hummed silently against her thoughts.

 _Forever,_ Rose agreed readily.

_Always._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I stated earlier, this fic is now being labeled as "complete", but I do have plans to continue the story through Series 9 at some point in the future, so stay tuned!
> 
> Thank you so, so much to everyone who has read, commented on, left kudos on, subscribed to, and bookmarked this fic. Your support and enjoyment mean the world to me, and I'm so grateful to have this opportunity to share my works with you!


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